A group of war orphans initially seen scratching out an existence through black market work, as they are taken under the wing of a nameless soldier, just repatriated after the war.

In Shimizu’s sequel to his 1948 masterpiece, a journalist arrives in the secluded foothills of Izu to find a hidden commune to ask, “What happened to the children of the Beehive?” Three years have passed and her question situates itself not only in the realm of Shimizu’s craft, but that of reality: What became of the war orphans Shimizu raised?

The final film in the Beehive trilogy, Children of the Great Buddha chronicles war orphans working as tour guides among the looming statues and temples of Japan’s ancient capital of Nara. Shimizu’s uncharacteristic hands-on approach to the film’s cinematography frames the sacred objects as “very real agents” in the children’s threadbare lives, resulting in a deeply moving and spiritual work that fittingly concludes his orphan saga.