Sayuri Tanima makes her way through a girl's school. There are over a thousand students, and a compassionate faculty who try to get through the constant giggling to make their pupils thoughtful and pleasant. She develops a friendship with Hideko Takamine, and comes to appreciate the educational system and the adults who make it up.
Looking at Takeo Murata's movie, based on a story by Takeko Hosokawa, my thoughts turn to another contemporary director who was growing interested in the issues of helping children become adults. Hiroshi Shimizu was interested in the same problems, and he too emphasized the need for compassionate, involved teachers, but Murata's movie does not seem to notice any problems. His students are giggly, but obedient and grateful for the wide-ranging curriculum, which includes literary Chinese and chemistry. It seems congratulatory of the educational system, and hence a bit propagandistic in the face of Shimizu's attitude of "Here are the problems. Here's how we overcome them."
