Mr. Thank You

Hiroshi Shimizu’s endearing road movie follows the long and winding route of a sweet-natured bus driver—nicknamed Mr. Thank You for his constant exclamation to pedestrians who kindly step out of his way—traveling from rural Izu to Tokyo.

Romance and comedy occur, and tragedy threatens his passengers, a virtual microcosm of depression-era Japan.

Director Shimizu Hiroshi.  78 mins, 1936. In Japanese with subtitles

Presented in collaboration with the Amherst College Department of Art and the History of Art, the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, and The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, in conjunction with Reinventing Tokyo: Japan's Largest City in the Artistic Imagination, August 25 to December 30, 2012, featuring over 100 woodblock prints, photographs and objects, portraying Tokyo in light of the city's continual reinvention in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Film series sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation.

With introduction by Prof. Timothy Van Compernolle of Amherst College