| Twenty-Four Eyes - Criterion Collection | 
 enlarge | Director: Keisuke Kinoshita
Actors: Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu, Toshiko Kobayashi, Chieko Naniwa, Takahiro Tamura
Studio: Criterion Collection
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.49
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 29895
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: Japanese (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 156
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: IMEDCC1763D
UPC: 715515031325
EAN: 0715515031325
ASIN: B0019X400S
Theatrical Release Date: 1954
Release Date: August 19, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Product Description
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 08/19/2008 Run time: 156 minutes
Amazon.com
Sentimental yet clear-eyed, Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes tracks the lives of 12 students through the perspective of one teacher. When Hisako Oishi (Hideko Takamine, a favorite of Kinoshita and Mikio Naruse) arrives in Shodoshima in 1928, the island's townspeople take umbrage at her modern suit and "shiny new bike," but Oishi's charm and dedication wins them over in the end. About her charges, she tells her mother, "I don't want those adorable eyes to ever lose their sparkle." Though Oishi means "big stone," the first-graders--five boys and seven girls--call her Miss Pebble due to her petite stature. As the years pass, some of the students leave school to work, while the now-married instructor encourages the boys to consider non-military options. Though she isn't a "Red," Mrs. Oishi subscribes to pacifism and free thought. Similarly, Twenty-Four Eyes doesn't advance a political agenda, but rather a humanist one. As Audie Bock (Japanese Film Directors) notes, Kinoshita placed a high value on "innocence, purity, and beauty," and even after two decades of hardship, his heroine never loses faith in the essential goodness of people. Though Sakae Tsuboi's 1952 novel inspired a 1987 remake, Kinoshita's film stands as the definitive adaptation. A classic in its native country, this 1954 feature shares the same timeless values as All Quiet on the Western Front and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Extras include an interview with Tadao Sato (Currents in Japanese Cinema), two trailers, and a booklet with commentary from the director and an essay by Bock. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews:
 A very good film spanning decades October 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This review is for the Criteiron Collection DVD edition of the film.
Twenty Four Eyes was released in Japan as Nijushi no hitomi. The film is one of the most critically acclaimed in Japan despite its obscurity outside of Japan.
It follows the lives of 12 students (the title is derived from the 12 students) at a school on a remote island in late 1920's Japan from their days as students to adulthood. I found it to be a great film and thought the storyline to be really good too. The film covers themes such as World War II, life and death.
The DVD has one special feature which is an interview with Tadao Sato, a Japanese film scholar who discusses the film and its director.
 The Life of Miss Pebble October 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie has been considered a classic in Japan since its release in 1954, and it's easy to see why. It begins as a charming, innocent portrait of a new teacher and her first grade class and slowly deepens into a touching yet realistic depiction of how each child's life goes on in its own way. Some of the children prosper, some fall into poverty and tragedy, but the matter-of-fact way that profound emotional issues are handled in this film without putting off the viewer is a feat that has never been accomplished so well before or since. A truly remarkable piece of art.
Japanese Culture October 3, 2008
This movies allows an inside view on japanese culture and behavior. Highly recommanded for interested people.
Twenty-Four Eyes-best film ever made- July 23, 2008
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have seen this movie several years ago and I begged Criterion Collection to sell this. Much to my suprise it is getting sold!! This is the most remarkable anti-war movie ever made about 12 school children who are doing what school children do-go to school, grow up, and family life. After the children play a prank on the teacher, which causes her to injure her ankle-I would say about 45 minutes later-you will NOT stop crying. You see-it is what happens when ordinary every day life is turned upside down due to war. This movie was taylor made to make you cry. The school children-when they want to visit their beloved teacher-all run away from home and try to walk to her house, which is many miles away. Along they way they start crying because they are hungry. I know it doesn't sound touching-but it is. Everything in this film is touching, highly emotional-it isn't just a movie, but an EXPERIENCE you will never forget. Yes, I have the movie, but I'm ordering this gem simply because Criterion Collection re digitalized it. TRUST ME THIS MOVIE IS AN EMORMOUS EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE-and it WILL make you cry I don't care how hard-as-nails you are!! IF I COULD GIVE IT A HUNDRED OR THOUSAND STARS, I WOULD!!! This movie is not just a good movie-it is a total and complete emotional experience, and is by far the most touching I have ever seen.
An Anti-War Movie Based on Sorrow and Loss July 11, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
When the Japanese lost the war, this trauma had to be explained and given meaning. Ironically, shortly after Hiroshima, certain Japanese films critiqued the aggressive militarism that led to the disaster [See Kurosawa's "No Regrets for our Youth]. Then, the Japanese films changed. They stopped focusing on their own culpability in the disaster or their own war crimes, and concentrated on the loss, tragedy, and sorrow of losing so many Japanese sons. This film, "Twenty-Four Eyes," fits into that category...and for that reason has been so popular in Japan for fifty years.
The story focuses on a self-sacrificing teacher and her relationship to 12 students over two decades. Everything is filmed around a small village bordering the ocean. Over these many years, the female teacher forges strong emotional bonds with all her students...and so when the boys go to war...and some don't return, her deep, personal loss is as extreme as that of a parent. The themes are reinforced though the changing moods of the sea or of the folk songs which the school chants. It's a very finely done film, although perhaps overly sentimental for my tastes. The director certainly never addresses the many injustices practiced by the Japanese on so many other Asian peoples. It reminded me, in a way, of the Buddhist movie "The Burmese Harp"...another excellent anti-war film that also sidesteps the issue of Japanese culpability. Nevertheless, few films are so poignantly intimate in treating the loss of life in war as this Japanese study. Recommended.
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