The story of one family's age-old tradition of providing sons for the Imperial Army focuses on the reactions of the modern generation as their eldest son is conscripted. "Kinoshita's fourth film was to have been a chronicle of a military family that would inspire the homefront audience--consisting mostly of the parents and grandparents of the nation's soldiers--and give them solace that their boys were doing the right and just thing for their country. The final result was anything but pleasing to the authorities, for what stands out, especially in the film's very moving climax, is not the nobility of the soldier's calling, but the suffering his family must inevitably face. Kinoshita also had to find appropriate technical methods to deal with the ever-worsening shortages of film stock and equipment that plagued the film industry. He thus resorted to shooting each scene with one shot, moving his camera frequently through the action. David Owens, Japan Society