This is the first film I have seen by film-maker Keisuke Kinoshita and as far as first impressions go, this is a good one. I knew that Kinoshita was a contemporary of Akira Kurosawa and like Kurosawa made propaganda films for the Fascist government of WWII-era Japan. Also like Kurosawa, he turned decidedly leftward after the war and made many films criticizing the fascist government including this film. While Kinoshita would never find the same popularity outside of Japan as Kurosawa, he was massively popular inside of Japan during and after the war. If you asked any cinephile outside of Japan what the best Japanese film or film in-general of 1954 was you would certainly get Seven Samurai, yet Twenty-Four Eyes was the consensus pick by Japanese critics for 1954.
Twenty-Four Eyes is an interesting historical epic because it documents The Great Depression and World War II not through the eyes of famous Japanese figures or even politically-active dissidents like Akira Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), but a school-teacher and her first 12 students on the eve of the Depression. It follows them as both the economic downturn and the rise of fascism hits there rural island. All of them would suffer during this time and the war would be the ultimate disaster for them all. The film is a typically 1950s melodrama, but the way it handles how these larger historical forces affected this little area is what admire about this film. While it is a bittersweet film, it still has some hope for tomorrow and contains a possible jab at Bicycle Thieves (1948) of all things at the end.
1954 was a big year for Japanese films—seriously. The fact that Kinoshita has two critically-praised releases (along with Kenji Mizoguchi) tells how good he was. This film also is more of what I consider a true feminist film as oppose to the films of Mizoguchi which I consider proto-feminist.
No comments:
Post a Comment