Night School was director Ishirō Honda's only film ever directed outside of Toho.^[4] The film was among the first about the topic of night schools.^[4] The original idea for developing a film around night schools was from Kanesaku Toda, a Toho staff member who approached Honda and other ex-Nichidai men.^[4] The team got the rights to the short story by Teiji Seta titled "Mail Desk" (Yubin zukue) which appeared in the children's magazine Boys and Girls.^[4] Among the crew was Yoko Mizuki as the screenwriter, and other Nichidai grads including Keiju Kobayashi and Jukichi Uno who starred as a teacher and a student's father.^[4] The film was produced by Nihon University College of Art with a low budget.^[4] Most actors on set worked without pay.^[4]

Honda and the film's producers submitted Night School to the Japanese government's education department, hoping to secure a seal of approval to get the film approved for families and students.^[4] The government advised Honda to change the title due to a stigma surrounding night schools, which Honda declined leading the funding being denied.^[4]

Night School was acquired by Daiei Film and distributed as a second feature on April 18, 1956.^[4][1]

The film was not screened for decades.^[5] It was revived at the 2009 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival retrospective titled "The Man Who Shot Godzilla".^[4] Following the screening, a panel discussion was held with Shusuke Kaneko and Honda's son Ryuji.^[5]

Footnotes edit

Sources edit

• Night School (1956) at IMDb  
• 夜間中学 at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)