Asu wa nipponbare

Lost for 70 years until 2022, Shimizu’s second postwar film recalls Mr. Thank You as he frames the narrative in a familiar setting, tracking an autumnal bus ride from a hot spring town through a mountain pass. When the jaunty bus unceremoniously breaks down, a bittersweet sadness overcomes the passengers as unexpected reunions take place, but nothing can be what it was before the war.