The story of a group of young people who organise their own travelling symphony orchestra to provide music for people living in remote villages shortly after the war.
Direction
Imai's humanist eye turns muddy roads into poetry.
Score
Beethoven in bombed-out barns — music as actual medicine.
Director
Tadashi Imai
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the American occupation, when depicting war trauma required coded storytelling through music and rural settings.
Imai cast actual amateur musicians; the string section's fumbling authenticity in early scenes is completely unscripted.
JP
