Shiinomi gakuen

Jûkichi Uno is a professor of education at a local university. He and his wife, Ranko Hanai have two boys. When they are stricken with polio and spinal paralysis, they encounter not just the hardship of dealing with crippled children, but the cruelty of other children. So they sell everything they own and open their own school, aided by others who have dealt with polio in their families.

Hiroshi Shimizu -- of whom Kenji Mizoguchi said "People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius" -- was a major talent in Japanese films from 1924 through 1959. He directed almost 150 features in that time. Although in the 1930s, many of his movies were about the hard lives of women, he developed an interest in children and worked with refugees. There are some incidents repeated here from his earlier INTROSPECTION TOWER (a teacher, driven to anger, slaps a student).

Shimizu had a real talent for working with untrained children, and it shows here. His work is largely neglected these days. It shouldn't be.