A young teacher named Oishi is appointed to a branch school on a remote island. The village elders are scandalized when they see her riding a bicycle to the school dressed in Western-style clothes,but the children adore her. Ms. Oishi gradually assimilates with the island village, but she has to leave the school, being married. The Pacific War breaks out and her former students die in the conflict one by one. When she returns to the branch school after the war ends, her now grown-up students throw a thank-you party for her. Director Keisuke Kinoshita’s Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) is an adaptation of the original novel written by Sakae Tsuboi. With the island elementary school as a backdrop, Kinoshita depicts the trivial daily lives of the teacher and the children, showing their war wounds and sacrifices, and the lives of the people who overcome all that in a poetic and touching way. This film was selected as the Best Film of the Year by Kinema Junbo, and also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language. (KIM Byeongcheol)