About

Raised earnestly by his feudal grandfather in the countryside of Chōshū, Milkman Frankie is astonished by the strangers he encounters upon his arrival in Tokyo. Frankie possesses a unique combination of clumsiness and undying dedication reminiscent of bushidō samurai code. Committed to providing good service, he devotes his innovative imagination to saving a milk delivery business from bankruptcy – despite the ever-modernising Bulldog Milkmen poaching their customer base.

Although released in the same year, Milkman Frankie offers a remarkable counterpoint to the notoriously controversial Juvenile Jungle. A wildly adventurous glimpse into the chaos of urban life, it is an early reference point for Nakahira’s characteristic fearlessness in experimenting with contextually prevalent themes and freedom of form. A slapstick caricature ingeniously disguised within fine-tuned classic Japanese humour, Milkman Frankie thoroughly quenches a country’s implicit thirst for satire in the wake of post-war rapid industrialisation.

Milkman Frankie will screen from an imported 35mm print.