Imasuke
The culturally isolated, nomadic Seburi people of western Japan are the subject of this tragedy about a few of the community's members who especially experience difficulties as modern Japan encroaches on their world. The setting is World War II, and conflicts have already arisen when the military police come to take Seburi men away into the army. Still following their own customs that can be harsh at times, and are particularly cruel to women (women must give birth alone and unaided, a woman's adultery is punished by burying her up to her neck in the earth and then leaving her for days), the Seburi are mainly treated with fear and animosity by the non-Seburi townspeople of the region. Along with the hardships arising from cultural clashes, nature's own vagaries present other challenges to the Seburi -- who still lived in tents until the 1950s. Winter avalanches and snowstorms cause as much havoc as the tensions engendered by the slow encroachment of the modern world.
Akio Tsukaro, dreaming of working for a beauty school's flag shop one day, stayed at Bunta Tadokoro without being involved in salon art, even though he graduated from beauty school. One day, Akio saw Michiko, a beautiful girl raining in Ginza. Since then, Akio has become unforgettable with the mascot that Michiko has taken away... Akira Saiga of "Dainippon Chambera Den" wrote the story, and Nozomu Yanase of "Northern Town" directed this youth work. Film by Muneo Ueda of "Early Youth Blue Fruit".
Takayuki
中学3年の石黒ジュン（吉永小百合）は、鋳物工場の直立炉（キューポラ）が立ち並ぶ埼玉県川口市の鋳物職人の長女である。何事にも前向きで、高校進学を目指すジュンだが、父・辰五郎（東野英治郎）が工場を解雇されたため、家計は火の車で、修学旅行に行くことも諦めていた。 自力で高校の入学費用を貯めようと、パチンコ屋でアルバイトを始めるジュン。担任教師の助力で修学旅行にも行けることになった。しかし、ようやく再就職した父親は、待遇が不満で仕事をやめてしまった。絶望したジュンは女友達と遊び歩き、危うく不良少年たちに乱暴されかけた。 全日制の高校進学を取りやめて、就職を決断するジュン。北朝鮮への帰還問題で苦悩する朝鮮人の一家や、貧しくとも力強く生きる人々との交流を通じて、ジュンは、自立して働きながら定時制で学び続けることに意義を見出したのだった。
