Product Description
Mr. Thank You (1936) is based on a short story by Yasunari Kawabata and stars Ken Uehara and Michiko Kuwano. 78 minutes with Japanese / English subtitles Region Code 2, NTSC. As with many Shimizu films, the troubles of the time are very much to the fore, as Japanese militarism, unemployment and poverty are all the subjects of conversations between passengers on a bus, the 'Mr Thank You' being the driver of the bus. One passenger is a girl on her way to be sold into prostitution, while a Korean girl labourer approaches Mr Thank You and tells him that she and her colleagues who have been building the roads in the area, are about to be sent north and asks him to take flowers to her father's grave. Mr Thank You is kind to her and indeed everyone he meets and offers to drive her to the station. Nevertheless, the implication of exploitation of immigrant workers is clear. The film is shot on location and takes place almost in real time mostly within the confines of the bus. Although fairly breezy it has serious undercurrents of concern about the direction Japan is heading.
