In a mountain village, Heita, a translator's son, is a gifted boy but is shunned by the villagers. He can imitate birds' cry and befriends another boy who works in a brewery. Heita also finds solace in the village pastor Yasugi and his teacher Michiko, but they too have problems of their own.
Direction
Kobayashi's patient, observational style before his epic period.
Acting
Shōji Mori's heartbreaking stillness as rejected Heita.
Cinematography
Mountain village as character—beautiful and indifferent.
Director
Masaki Kobayashi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kobayashi made this between his apprenticeship with Mizoguchi and his own war trilogy—rare standalone humanism.
The brewery worker subplot quietly critiques postwar Japan's rigid class hierarchies that trapped gifted children like Heita.
JP
