In 2021, Mitsuru Kuramoto, a well-known comedy producer, aimed to deliver something new together with comedy duo Jarujaru: conte cinema – a combination of sketch comedy with a continuous narrative with Shusuke Fukutoku and Junpei Goto taking on all the different roles. Does it work? Hell yeah, it does.

Thanc You commences by introducing the spectator to Beppu (Junpei Goto) and Cherry (Shusuke Fukutoku), two members of an unpopular manzai-duo Berrycherry. Their practice-time has turned into a full-blown discussion concerning attitude and motivation. Cherry eventually cuts the discussion short by divulging his desire to quit the duo.  

Some time later, Beppu enters a hairdresser. He soon realizes that the hairdresser Ryo (Shusuke Fukutoku) works without mirrors and he must, as the hairdresser orders it, keep eye contact at all times.

At a school, Kuruno (Junpei Goto), the teacher in charge of the Mountain Climbing club yet eager to get his weekends back, approaches the only member of the club, Yasuda (Shusuke Fukutoku), to discuss the future of the club. However, a discussion does not unfold as the students remains, like always, mute. Yet, even without any response, he proposes him to quit and allow the club to dissolve. Suddenly, the student starts crying and, through his tears, expresses his love for climbing.  

The same student runs to the nurse’s office, attracted the attention of another student (Junpei Goto). After briefly talking about the reason of his crying, the curly boy discovers a stethoscope. They start experimenting with it – farts follow.   

With Thanc You, Kuramoto does not merely deliver a collection of unrelated skits, but a well-structured pattern of shifting theatrical stages that spins a minimal narrative thread, a slice-of-life comedy. Even what, at first, merely seems like comical digressions (e.g. the conversation between the hairdresser and his coworker Yo Arima, …etc.) ultimately find a fitting place within a surprising relational network. All the characters have, in some way or another, a connection with another character – they are friends, family, co-workers, … – or find themselves in a place (e.g. school, apartment) that forces a certain relation (Student-teacher, boss-employee, neighbours…).

This relational network, as becomes evident as the skits concatenate, is built around two couples – the manzai-duo and the two high school friends. The two duos do not merely have a one-time skit-like appearance within the narrative, but a set of comical moments that develops their ‘relational’ story. Due to the emphasis on two couples, the thematical dimension of Thanc you can easily be described: comedy duo Jarujaru explore the dynamic of the formation and the disbanding of a group for comical relief: the encounter and mis-encounter, the understanding and the mis-understanding.

The conversational moments of light-heartedness rely, unsurprisingly, heavily on the disruptive impact of nonsense on relational functioning and the conversational flow. The emphasis on non-sense does not only illustrate how we, to come to some sort of understanding with others in our daily conversations, rely on the prescriptions of the societal Other – prescriptions that guide our interpretations of the Other’s presence – but also radicalizes the fact that, behind veil of societal-induced sense, lies opaque desire: What does the Other desire; which desire lies in line with the Other’s desire? What does the Other want? To put it in more general terms, the conversational non-sense signals the failure of the veil of meaning to smoothen interactions by uncovering the structural misunderstanding that separates subjects.

Kuramoto and Jarujaru emphasize, time and time again throughout the various skits, that interactional nonsense equals subjective misunderstanding, that non-sense arises from bringing one’s ego – one’s own frame of meaning – in play, but failing to erase, with this ego-frame, the Otherness of the other. However, in some rare instances, light-heartedness is created by turning non-sense into a metaphor and allow it to function as a shared signified (e.g. The onsen metaphor versus the keirin (horse-racing) metaphor).    

Jarujaru decorates the conversational comedy with some hilarious slap-stick moments and some straight-up absurd situations (e.g. The wild-boar burglar, the magician and his lemons, …). These moments, rather than detracting from the dimension of non-sense, seek to reemphasize it from a something different perspective.

What makes Thanc You work so well is the impeccable timing. Jarujaru does not only excel in creating an interactional flow that generates smiles and laughs, but also create a fluid flow between the different segments – no segment is too short or too long. In the finale, they even mischievously exploit the dimension of timing with great comical effect.  

So, how does one bring a two-man performance visually to life on the silver screen? As Kuramoto shows, by utilizing the cut and camera movement to enhance and not counteract the theatrical effect. Kuramoto wields the camera both to show respect to the theoretical frame – using shots that delineates the stage – as well as to elevate the interactional flow – by utilizing the cut to guide the spectator’s attention and semi close-ups to invite him to closely read the facial expressions and the flow of and the meaning produced by enunciations. 

In some cases, Kuramoto decorates the conversational light-heartedness by interweaving imagery that visualizes what is talked about. The theatrical stage, however, is not only enriched by such visual excursions, but also aims to empower the conversational flow and the light-hearted effects the exchange of signifiers sort.  

Thanc You offers the spectator a quintessential manzai-experience in a filmic envelope, a beautiful introduction to the emotional range relational comedy can have. Through farce, word-play and absurdity, Mitsuru Kuramoto and comedy duo Jarujaru expose the very truth that the imaginary dimension of sense seeks to repress: that we are bound to each other via non-sense. While this film flew under the radar of many, we cannot but recommended it highly enough.