Sweeping yet intimate Shochiku weeper from Keisuke Kinoshita, about 18 years in the life of a provincial teacher, who forms a special relationship with the first twelve students of her first year. Spanning from 1928 through 1946, the 156 minute film focuses more on the tragic than the happy, especially through the Depression and the devastation of WWII, and there are so many tears that it’s exhausting, but never less than lyrically beautiful, and Hideko Takamine as the loving teacher is memorable. Certainly one of the saddest films you’ll ever see.