FILMINATION

FILMINATION Co., Ltd. (Location: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture; President: Hiroaki Kanamaru; hereinafter “FILMINATION”), a distribution platform of Japanese films for global VOD companies, has started to distribute Keisuke Kinoshita's “Twenty-Four Eyes” to LaCinetek, a VOD service based in Paris, France that specialises in classic films.

©1954　SHOCHIKU Co., Ltd. All rights reserved

Set on the island of Shodoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, the film is an enduring masterpiece that lyrically depicts the interaction between a female teacher and 12 children. It was selected as one of the 100 best films out of approximately 5,000 films produced and distributed by Shochiku in the “100 Years of Shochiku Films” announced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shochiku in 2020.

Adapted by Keisuke Kinoshita from an original story by Sakae Tsuboi, the film won numerous awards including the Best Foreign Language Film at the 12th Golden Globe Awards and was ranked number one in the 1954 Kinema Junpo Best Ten.

LaCinetek, launched by film producer Alain Rocca together with three filmmakers (Pascale Ferran, Cédric Klapisch and Laurent Cantet), offers more than 1,400 classic films from the 20th century and reaches around 17,000 viewers per month. The selection of films has been made in collaboration with filmmakers, and so far 95 directors have participated, including Martin Scorsese, Agnès Varda and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

In the international VOD market, services specialising in new releases as well as classics are emerging, and these are promising destinations for Japanese films, which have occupied an important place in the history of cinema.

FILMINATION will continue to contribute to the development of the Japanese film industry by discovering and re-launching attractive Japanese films and supporting their overseas development.

About Films to be distributed on LaCinetek

About “Twenty-Four Eyes” directed by Keisuke Kinoshita（available on LaCinetek from July 1）

Set on the island of Shodoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, this national masterpiece by director Keisuke Kinoshita lyrically depicts the interaction between a female teacher and her 12 students. The film depicts the tragedy of war through the hardships of a female teacher and her students, who are inevitably swallowed up in the swell of history that propelled Japan into World War II. Adapted by the director himself from an original story by Tsuboi Sakae, the film won numerous awards including the Best Foreign Language Film at the 12th Golden Globe Awards and was ranked number one in the 1954 Kinema Junpo Best Ten. It was also selected as one of the 100 best films out of approximately 5,000 films produced and distributed by Shochiku in the "100 Years of Shochiku Films" announced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shochiku in 2020.