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Also known as Times of Joy and Sorrow, The Lighthouse was directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, one of the Japanese cinema's foremost purveyors of "social realism." Covering the years from 1932 through 1957, this is the story of the trials and tribulations of lighthouse keeper Keiji Sada and his wife Hideko Takamine. The narrative is given scope and variety by having Sada and his wife continually being transferred from one lonely outpost to another. Originally running nearly three hours, the film was trimmed down to 153 minutes for non-Japanese showings. One of the few Kinoshita films to receive an American release, The Lighthouse was spotlighted at the 1958 Museum of Modern Art's Japanese Film Festival.