A guitar plays itself because it recognizes something true in a person the world ignores. That's the whole story, and it's enough. This 1959 puppet film moves so slowly, so deliberately, that you stop waiting for plot and start watching what actually matters: the moment a handmade thing responds to a handmade heart. Nobody remembers this one. They should.

A guitar starts to play by itself, moved by the kind and lovely spirit of a flower seller's daughter. Ryosaku Takayama made this fantasy film in puppet animation with Gakken Eigakyoku, and it won the Gold Prize at the Tokyo Educational Film Festival in 1959. Its story centers on an instrument that responds to the girl's goodness.