School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.

Set in Japan during the bubble era, this unique home comedy cheerfully and humorously depicts the daily life of a strange family that works together to accumulate a small amount of money, while mixing irony and satire.

The film tells the story of four orphans living in an impoverished mining town. An adaptation of a best-selling book based on the diary of a ten-year-old zainichi (ethnic Korean Japanese) girl, it was one of the first films to deal with the subject of zainichi identity and struggles in Japan.

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

1954年9月，一艘往来于青森和函馆的客轮在海上沉没，大批的乘客遇难。阿久津是青函隧道技术调查团的成员，正在津轻海峡进行调查，偶然地救了一个想自杀的女孩牧村多惠，并将他带到阿连经营的食品店工作。1956年，阿久津向上级汇报，认为青函隧道可以挖掘。第二年他被派往明石海峡调查，在故乡结婚生子。1964年，日本铁路公司成立，青函隧道开始动工，阿久津也来到青森。由于多惠的帮助，他招了一批立志为青函隧道献身的年轻人。施工后由于风大浪险的恶劣环境，两个月里工程只挖了五米。为完成父志，阿久津不顾风湿病折磨，始终战斗在施工现场。就在父亲病逝那天，隧道中发生冒顶事故，地下水汹涌而出。阿久津带着工人和技术人员奋力抢救，虽然不断有人负伤甚至牺牲但无人畏缩不前，终于制服了坑道渗水。日本最长的隧道完工了，阿久津在父亲的墓前献上了一束青森的草花。

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.