Hideko the Bus Conductor

Hideko the Bus Conductor
Japanese	秀子の車掌さん
Directed by	Mikio Naruse
Produced by	Sanezumi Fujimoto
Written by	Mikio Naruse; Masuji Ibuse (novella);
Starring	Hideko Takamine; Kamatari Fujiwara; Daijirō Natsukawa;
Music by	Nobuo Iida
Cinematography	Ken Azuma
Production; company	Nan-ō Eiga
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	September 17, 1941; [1]
Running time	54 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Hideko the Bus Conductor a.k.a. Hideko the Bus Conductress (秀子の車掌さん, Hideko no shashô-san) is a 1941 Japanese comedy drama film written and directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the serialised novella Okoma-san by Masuji Ibuse and the first collaboration of Naruse and star Hideko Takamine.[1][2]

Plot

Okoma, a young lady working as a conductor with the Kohoku bus company in Kofu, Yamanashi, is worried about the dwingling number of passengers, who prefer the more expensive but clean and faster buses of the competing Kaihatsu company. After hearing a radio programme about bus guides, she develops the idea to entertain the passengers with informations about the local sites during the drive. After convincing the driver Sonoda and the company boss of her idea, she manages to get visiting writer Ikawa to write a script for her. Ikawa waives a payment because Okoma had found and returned his lost notebook. During the practice run, Okoma is hurt and the bus slightly damaged in an accident. The company boss tries to talk Sonoda into giving false testimony about the accident's circumstances to collect the insurance money, but Sonoda, after consulting Ikawa, finally rejects. Confronted with his foul attempt by Ikawa, the boss orders to have the bus cleaned instead. After waving Ikawa good-bye, Okoma and Sonoda give their initial guided bus tour, not knowing that the boss has sold the bus in the meantime and is closing down the company.

Cast

Hideko Takamine as Okoma
Kamatari Fujiwara (credited Keita Fujiwara) as Sonoda
Daijirō Natsukawa as Ikawa
Tamae Kiyokawa as landlady
Yotaro Katsumi as company boss
Tsuruko Mano as Okama's mother

Background

Hideko Takamine, in the principal role as Okoma, was already a famous film star for her childhood roles, and the title of the film refers to her name rather than that of the character which bears no first name in the original novella. Also, Naruse lightened the ending of Ibuse's story. This was the first film that Naruse made with Takamine, with seventeen more to follow between 1945 and 1966.[2]

Naruse scholar Catherine Russell has described this film as "a remarkable film about a young woman 'coming out' as a professional, articulate, speaking subject."[3]

References

Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6004-9.
Freedman, Alisa; Miller, Laura; Yano, Christine R., eds. (2013). Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-8554-9.
Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.

External links

Hideko the Bus Conductor at IMDb
Hideko the Bus Conductor at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)

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[galbraith-1] Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6004-9.

[freedman-miller-2] Freedman, Alisa; Miller, Laura; Yano, Christine R., eds. (2013). Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-8554-9.

[russell-3] Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.