Based on the best-selling diary of a ten-year-old girl of Korean descent, My Second Brother bears recognizable foreshadowing of Imamura's later works. In the midst of a violent coal-mining strike in the Saga region of Kyushu, a father dies, leaving his four children to fend for themselves. Imamura's approach to childhood, as seen in the relationship of the two youngest family members, is refreshingly unsentimental. Filmed entirely on location, My Second Brother focuses on the vitality and resilience of Japan's poor, and on their ability to make it through even the most difficult of times. Imamura claimed that the factual nature of his source material made it difficult for him to portray any villains; to his embarrassment, the film was awarded the prestigious Education Minister's Prize for its sensitive depiction of the problems of education and social work in this remote area. -Richard Peña