The twins Seizo and Yukihiko Tashima grow up in a small village in the Kochi District, an idyllic, rural paradise. It is 1948. The little boys are in the third year of primary school, their father and mother are civil servant and teacher. The twins are known as tearaways in the village. Their escapades mean that their mother regularly has to do the rounds to apologise for her sons’ behaviour. Despite, or maybe thanks to, their close bond, quarrels regularly develop between the brothers. However they heartily agree about one thing: they have witnessed strange supernatural phenomena. For instance three gruesome old women who protect them and seem to come from a different world… When the boys accidentally start hurting their poorer friends with their mischief, they begin to build a world of their own.The foundation for this small, delicate and deceptively simple evocation of peaceful youth years, was formed by an autobiographical anthology of essays by Seizo Tashima, who like his brother Yukihiko is now a popular book illustrator. David Stratton, Variety: ‘With its naturalistic acting, its celebration of simple pleasures and its acute insight into the cruelty and thoughtlessness of children, this film is a minor jewel’.
