Abstract:

Based on the novel: Ni jushi no hitomi by Sakae Tsuboi. "The cost of war is counted in wrecked hopes and wasted human potential in Kinoshita's powerful denunciation of a system that stifles individual growth and transforms personal ambition into unflinching devotion to the state. The film begins in 1928, and follows Miss Oishi, a shockingly modern and progressive Japanese woman, who begins her tenure as an elementary school teacher. To her, the future seems to hold limitless possibilities for her 12 first-graders. But when the story ends, in the late 1940's, this promise has been wrecked by war, poverty, and restrictive tradition."-- Facets Video, http://www.facets.org. With Hideko Takamine, Chishu Ryu, Toshiko Kobayashi, Yumeji Tsukioka.