(Hideko no shasho-san). Hideko Takamine stars in the first of her seventeen films with Naruse, a charming, escapist comedy in which the war is, if anything, conspicuous by its absence. Filmed on location, the story follows a teenage girl who works in a country hot-springs village as a ticket-taker for a bus line that has seen better days (obviously, but not stated, due to the wartime conditions). She develops a scheme to liven up her route by turning it into a tourist line and herself into a "modern" tour guide.

• Written by Naruse, from a story by Masuji Ibuse. Photographed by Ken Azuma. With Hideko Takamine, Keita (Kamatari) Fujiwara, Daijiro Natsukawa. (54 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, 16mm, Courtesy of The Japan Foundation, permission Toho)