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| 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: $20.86
You Save: $9.09 (30%)
New (34) Used (7) from $20.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 7815
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), Japanese (Original Language)
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: 1763
UPC: 715515031325
EAN: 0715515031325
ASIN: B0019X400S
Theatrical Release Date: 1954
Release Date: August 19, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
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| Editorial Reviews:
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
Product Description
Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no hitomi) is an elegant, emotional chronicle of a teacher s unwavering commitment to her students, her profession, and her sense of morality. Set in a remote, rural island community and spanning decades of Japanese history, from 1928 through World War II and beyond, Kinoshita's film takes a simultaneously sober and sentimental look at the epic themes of aging, war, and death, all from the lovingly intimate perspective of Hisako Oshi (Hideko Takamine), as she watches her pupils grow and deal with life's harsh realities. Though little known in the United States, Twenty-Four Eyes is one of Japan's most popular and enduring classics.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:New, restored high-definition digital transfer, New video interview with Japanese cinema historian and critic Tadao Sato about the film and its director, New and improved English subtitle translation.
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay be renowned film scholar Audie Bock and excerpts from an interview with Kinoshita
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| Customer Reviews:
 An Anti-War Movie Based on Sorrow and Loss July 11, 2008
10 out of 11 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.
 Twenty-Four Eyes-best film ever made- July 23, 2008
4 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.
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