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Touches You

Such a frustrating disappointment

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Viewed on DVD. Editing = 2.5 stars; restoration = 2.5 stars. Director Keisuke Kinoshita's lyrical outing suffers from an attempt to blend epoch drama with an all-purpose (Swiss-army-knife) children's choral concert. The mash up is quite effective when the Director sticks with cute first-grade school songs. Not so much when his children's chorus sings lyrics that: consist of blank-verse nonsense (a phenomenon often found on the sound track of films from this era); take on an unrealistic adult perspective; provide expository information (voice-over singing); deliver travel logs; provide third-party points of view; etc. In short, this incessant "racket" rapidly becomes an irritant especially when it keeps interrupting the very engaging story line. The film needs a good scrub by an experienced musical director (which would also shorten a too long film and keep the focus squarely on the unfolding high drama). It is amusing to see that school classes seem to be limited to--you guessed it--singing! No less interesting is the lack of continuity when 12 first-grade children (24 eyes) suddenly become 20 or more (40 eyes!). Kinoshita makes effective use of very long scenes by ensuring they remain engaging. Acting, however, is uneven due to limitations in script and direction. The talents of leading actress Hideko Takamine (playing a "modern" school teacher) are squandered with dialog along the lines of "I don't know what to say" and "I can't say anything now" and ever present sobbing (more than half of Takamine's performance is limited to crying!). Distinguished actor Chishû Ryû is both miscast and misdirected playing a clueless first-grade music teacher. Director Kinoshita also over doses on cute (but hammy and obviously staged) mug shots of children (the same shots are repeatedly shown). Subtitles do not translate hand writing and some singing bouts. Cinematography (narrow screen, black and white) uses an antique format (perhaps due to budging issues and/or fear of updating?). Editing errors and restoration that does not correct for same occur with each inter-scene dissolve in the first third of the movie. Linked scenes go out of focus just before and immediately after each dissolve (could at least be replaced with jump cuts during restoration?). Sound dubbing is OK. Nonchoral music consists of a rich score that include some riffs on Steven Foster and Auld Lang Syne. Enjoyable, especially if you are into choral music big time! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

"Twenty-Four Eyes" follows the life of a young school teacher named Hisako Oishi (Hideko Takamine) as she shepherds her twelve students through life with loyalty and love. The story focuses on the hopes of the children and the hopes of their teacher for them. Along the way, Sensei Oishi shares their heartbreaks that come from life's harsh realities.Because the film takes place in the years before and during WWII, Hideko is also confronted with extreme nationalism and a progressively jingoistic society under the rule of an Emperor. Through it all, she teaches the value of the individual and disdain for war.This film is touching and sensitive. Aided by an evocative soundtrack that contrasts poetic songs of nature with songs that encourage death in battle, the director, Keisuke Kinoshita (who also wrote the screenplay), shows how the story of the nation affected the lives of the twelve students.This film is a tribute to dedicated teachers, an insightful history lesson, and a celebration of the individual and his conscience. It is a masterpiece that is guaranteed to evoke tears.

Considered by some Japanese critics as one of the ten best Japanese films of all time, Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes is a moving tribute to a teacher's dedication to her students and to her progressive ideals. The film spans twenty years of turbulent Japanese history beginning in 1928 and continuing through the end of World War II. Though to Western eyes it can be at times oppressively melodramatic with its overuse of such sentimental melodies like "Annie Laurie", "Auld Lang Syne", and "Bless This House", the film was extremely popular in Japan, beating out such highly regarded classics as Mizoguchi's Sansho Dayu, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and Naruse's Late Chrysanthemums for Best Film in Japan and Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.Adapted from a novel by Sakae Tsuboi and set in the rural island of Shodoshima, the title refers to the eyes of seven girls and five boys, the twelve students of first grade teacher Hisako Oishi (Hideko Takamine), endearingly called "Miss Pebble". As the film opens, a confident new teacher, Miss Oishi, rides to the school on her bicycle dressed in modern Western clothes but soon has problems being accepted by the working class villagers who think that she is a wealthy outsider. The senior teacher (Chishu Ryu) at the primary school even asks why the authorities would send such a good teacher. Miss Oishi is also criticized for calling the students by their nicknames, inquiring into each child's family life, and singing folk songs instead of the school anthems.Later, during the Japanese invasion of China, she is suspected of being a "red" because she discourages her young pupils from becoming soldiers but does not protest when the headmaster burns one of her books. Proud but traditionally passive, she refuses to intervene in a family dispute when one of her students, a gifted singer, expresses a desire to attend the conservatory rather than go to work in a café, and does not attempt to raise funds to send one of the poorest students on a school trip. Miss Oishi is able to gain a share of acceptance, however, after an injury to her leg sidelines her for several months and the children visit her without being aware of the length of the journey. It is only when she meets the crying children on their way to her home that reconciliation with the community begins to take place.Unfortunately, the length of the trip to the school forces Miss Oishi to transfer to the middle school closer to her home and she will not teach the same children for five years. Miss Oishi is a compassionate teacher who does not want to see her bright young students killed in the war but the growing conflict in China and the increasing poverty in the village force the young men to become cannon fodder for the militarists with unfortunate results. Twenty-Four Eyes to our modern view has many excesses including its almost three-hour length but the purity and radiance of Takamine as the compassionate school teacher shines through and the film allowed Japanese audiences to experience a cathartic expression of the sadness and loss caused by the war.

Those who like the movie Twenty-Four Eyes might enjoy the novel of the same title from which it was made. I found Sakae Tsuboi's 1952 novel in a used-book store some years ago and just got around to reading it. Its style is plain and unadorned. It is not at all sentimental. Bad things happen to good people and most victims (except the heroine) tolerate their bad treatment or bad luck. The novel's schoolteacher-heroine suffers from popular disapproval when she makes a few pacifist remarks during wartime. In the same way, Setsuko Hara was ostracized and punished in Kurosawa's "No Regrets for our Youth." This book illuminated Kurosawa's movie for me.Without lecturing, the author recreates the general population's obedience to the military government. The popularity of the novel and the movie in Japan imply that this was the kind of catharsis needed by a people who had over-reached, committed serious crimes, and suffered horribly on their way to military defeat.The novel has the odd trait (to this reader) of passing over many important moments in the lives of the teacher and the children without showing them. The book does not show Miss Oishi's resignation from her job in protest against the war, nor her marriage, nor the birth and upbringing of her own children. It refers to these only later, though they are important in her life.Unfortunately it has been a decade since I saw the film. I remember thinking it was quite weepy and 30 minutes too long, like most Japanese films. Except for Ozu's masterpieces, which are exactly the right length, as everything else about them is exactly right. Excuse the digression.The English title of the book is also Twenty-Four Eyes. It was translated by Akira Miura and published by Kenkyusha in Japan in 1957. There was a third printing in 1960 (the copy I have), so the book must have sold well in English, in addition to its huge popularity in Japan. I doubt it's still in print, but book-search web sites might offer it. There's no ISBN.