Twenty-Four Eyes

Little known in Poland, but adored in Japan, the story of teacher Hisako Oshi (Hideko Takamine) raising the eponymous twelve toddlers on the island of Shōdoshima in the Seto Inland Sea. In the words of Adam Garbicz: “The secret of Kinoshita’s exquisite style is invisibility.” This is true, as long as by “invisibility” we mean the steady, unobtrusive hand of an experienced master craftsman. The film’s portrayal of Japan’s decades-long transition (from 1928 to post-war), the faithfully recorded changes of seasons and the empathetic, anti-military narrative combine to create a modest masterpiece, in equal measure restrained and devastating. The meticulous casting of the children’s roles is the stuff of legend: the older actors were selected so that one could see the physical similarities between the toddlers and the youngsters going off to war. A classic in the truest sense of the word, Kinoshita’s film is a “tear-jerker” that exudes a sense of thoughtfulness and quiet acceptance.

Sebastian Smoliński

Keisuke Kinoshita (1912–1998) was a Japanese director and screenwriter. He was less known abroad than many of his contemporaries but beloved in his home country by critics and audiences alike. Apart from his best-known film Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), his filmography includes Japan’s first color feature, Carmen Comes Home (1951) and the first film version of The Ballad of Narayama (1958), better known in Shôhei Imamura’s 1983 adaptation.