Hotaru no Hoshi
Fireflies: River of Light (2003)Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Risako Sugaya
Synopsis from Japanese Film Festival 2004
After finally passing his teacher’s exam on the third attempt, a young man quickly learns that passing an exam does not make him a teacher. He struggles to get through to his students, until on a field trip to the river, he makes an unconscious remark about fireflies, and suddenly all his students are paying attention. So he creates a class project to clean up the river and raise fireflies to fly over it once again. The students become passionately involved in their firefly project, but it brings their teacher into conflict with their parents, the school administration and even the city itself. Quietly he is told he can save his job by stopping the project, but he knows he cannot give up on the children. Believing in them is what teaching is all about…
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When you Believe,
You plant the seed of faith in you.
When you Hope,
You set a goal to reach for.
Japanese movie, especially those that made it into International debut, never fails to amaze me, visually. The simplicity of its storyline never tends to let me down. There's always an element I look forward to - the quality of human interaction.
Hotaru no Hoshi - the story revolving the passionate hopes and dreams between a teacher and his class students definitely speaks more than just a mere 'bonding session'. Its about knowing, doing and accomplishing something - Something of importance; Of past, that may have been ceased and forgotten.. Of future, that may seem vague and surreal.
After finally passing his teacher’s exam on the third attempt, a young man quickly learns that passing an exam does not make him a teacher. He struggles to get through to his students, until on a field trip to the river, he makes an unconscious remark about fireflies, and suddenly all his students are paying attention. So he creates a class project to clean up the river and raise fireflies to fly over it once again. The students become passionately involved in their firefly project, but it brings their teacher into conflict with their parents, the school administration and even the city itself. Quietly he is told he can save his job by stopping the project, but he knows he cannot give up on the children. Believing in them is what teaching is all about…
--------------------------
When you Believe,
You plant the seed of faith in you.
When you Hope,
You set a goal to reach for.
Japanese movie, especially those that made it into International debut, never fails to amaze me, visually. The simplicity of its storyline never tends to let me down. There's always an element I look forward to - the quality of human interaction.
Hotaru no Hoshi - the story revolving the passionate hopes and dreams between a teacher and his class students definitely speaks more than just a mere 'bonding session'. Its about knowing, doing and accomplishing something - Something of importance; Of past, that may have been ceased and forgotten.. Of future, that may seem vague and surreal.
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