Masahiro Shinoda - Shonen jidai aka Childhood Days (1990)

Bombing during World War II resulted in whole urban populations fleeing to the countryside, and this created a meeting of urban and rural cultures. Shinji (a young boy evacuated from Tokyo) and his new schoolmates (who are villagers) don't exactly know what is going on in the war. They see the B-29 bombers and the glow of cities on fire, but the problems of being separated from one's mother and surviving among one's peers loom larger than international politics.





Veteran director Masahiro Shinoda spins this childhood drama reminiscent of Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece I Was Born But.... Set in the summer of 1944, the film centers on Shinji (Tetsuya Fujita), a ten-year-old Tokyoite evacuated from the ruins of Tokyo to rural Toyama prefecture. Compared to the straw sandals and threadbare clothes of the locals, Shinji's crisp school uniform looks both glamorous and strange. The schoolyard boss of the neighborhood is Takeshi (Yuji Horioka), the hard-driving son of a fisherman who says little but throws a mean punch. Shinji soon falls in with the neighborhood crowd, but tension soon builds between the two boys. When Shinji drops the group in favor of meeting a girl visiting from Osaka, he is later forced by Takeshi to sing in front of them as penance. Yet, as the film progresses, Takeshi's command of the gang slowly slips. (Jonathan Crow - AMG)







Durante la II Guerra mundial, los bombardeos en las ciudades japonesas provocan el éxodo de gran parte la población, desplazada hacia el medio rural y provocando el encuentro entre ambas comunidades, rural y urbana. Shinji, un niño evacuado desde Tokio, conoce de esta manera a nuevos amigos en el campo. (FILMAFFINITY)





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