Twenty Four Eyes [Criterion Collection]

Director: Keisuke Kinoshita

Overview

This gentle, sensitive Japanese drama features Hideko Takamine as a schoolteacher who begins her long career in 1927. The film follows the woman's progress through World War II and also traces the individual destinies of her first 12 pupils. The emphasis is on the maintenance of traditional Japanese values in the face of an increasingly militaristic government and how the effort to remain loyal to those values affects the teacher, her husband, and her students. As everyone grows older, ideals are shattered and compromised, and beauty is subjugated to ugliness. The film closes with an emotional reunion scene that evokes memories of similarly structured Hollywood historical dramas. Filmed in 1954, 24 Eyes was not released outside of Japan until 1957. Its U.S. premiere occurred in 1960; its television debut took place 14 years later on PBS.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/19/2008
UPC:	0715515031325
Original Release:	1954
Rating:	NR
Source:	CRITERION
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:36:00
Sales rank:	16,664

Special Features

New, restored high-defintion digital transfer; New video interview with Japanese cinema historian and critic Tadao Sato about the film and its Director; Theatrical teasers; New and improved English subtitle translation; Plus: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Audie Bock and an excerpt from a 1955 interview with Kinoshita

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hideko Takamine	Hisako Oishi
Takahiro Tamura	Isokichi Isoda
Eisei Amamoto	Hisako's Husband,Actor
Yumeji Tsukioka	Masuno Kagawa
Toshiko Kobayashi	Sanae Yamaishi
Chishu Ryu	Teacher
Shizue Natsukawa	?ishi Sensei no Haha
Nijiko Kiyokawa	Yorozuya
Ushio Akashi	K?ch?
Chieko Naniwa	Meshiya no Kamisan
Kuniko Igawa	Actor
Hideki Goko	Actor
Chuji Kinoshita	Composer

Technical Credits

Keisuke Kinoshita

Keisuke Kinoshita	Screenwriter
Ryotaro Kuwata	Producer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Twenty Four Eyes
1. Shodoshima [4:46]
2. Modern [4:31]
3. Lines [3:31]
4. Attendance [4:29]
5. Bonding [3:04]
6. Worries [5:11]
7. Seashore [5:13]
8. Substitute [3:14]
9. Visit [12:12]
10. Problem [1:58]
11. Waves [6:17]
12. Officer [6:23]
13. Lily [5:39]
14. Red [7:15]
15. Passage [6:31]
16. Steps [8:04]
17. Hopes [6:18]
18. Duty [4:02]
19. Quitting [4:37]
20. Adrift [6:32]
21. Losses [12:44]
22. Announcement [6:05]
23. Persimmon [2:30]
24. Returning [2:19]
25. Markers [4:08]
26. Faces [5:06]
27. Remember [6:36]
28. Bars [6:33]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Twenty Four Eyes
Play the Movie
Chapters
Tadao Sato Interview
Play
Theatrical Teaser 1
Theatrical Teaser 2
Subtitles
Subtitles: On
Subtitles: Off