Operation Y and Shuriks Other Adventures

Cast

Segment "Workmate"

Segment "Deja vu"

Segment "Operation Y"

Segment "Workmate"

On a bus a boor and drunkard named Fedya takes a seat reserved for children and disabled persons and then refuses to let a young pregnant woman sit claiming that "she is neither a child nor handicapped". Shurik, who is riding on the same bus, puts on a pair of sunglasses, and pretends to be visually impaired. When Fedya is urged to let him sit in his seat, Shurik offers the seat to the pregnant woman. Fedya is enraged at being deceived and gets into a fight with Shurik. As a result, Fedya is arrested and sentenced to 15 days of Community service, Russian administrative arrest or simply 15 sutok (15 days). Ironically, he is sent to serve his term to the same construction site where Shurik works part-time. The manager puts them on the same work crew. Fedya does not do his work properly, bullies Shurik, and plans to get revenge on the young student. When Shurik finally hits back, the two get involved in a Tom and Jerry-style chase throughout the construction site using building equipment and various materials as weapons. In the end Fedya is subdued and reeducated by Shurik.

Features

Segment "Deja vu"

Its time for summer examinations at the University, and everyone is cramming for the exams. Shurik (and everyone else) is looking desperately for lecture notes and finally sees them in the hands of a girl on a streetcar, Lida, who is a student of the same University. As Shurik follows her reading the notebook over her shoulder, they become so deeply absorbed in reading the notes that Lida never looks up, instinctively assuming that Shurik is one of her female coeds. The two are completely engrossed in reading and never look at or speak to each other, following a sort of humorous pantomime.

They come into the girls apartment and spend time there reading simultaneously with having a snack and resting, with the girl taking her clothes off, still completely unaware of each others identity, then prepare to go back to the University. There Shurik is distracted from Lidas notebook by a fellow student and loses her as she walks in another direction. After passing the exam successfully, he is introduced to Lida by a mutual friend. Shurik does not recognize Lida but is enchanted by her. He walks her back home and, following an amusing incident involving a dog belonging to Lidas neighbors, finds himself in her apartment again, where he starts to feel as if he has been there before since he can guess where all the things are placed and all the "objects, scents and sounds" seem familiar to him. Lida assumes that he might be a telepathist and has an ability of precognition. She tells him to guess her wish that she has written on a piece of paper, "Find the teddy bear". Shurik then kisses her. Although he failed to guess the wish, the kiss evokes romantic feelings in both of them, and they decide to meet again after the next exam.

Meanwhile another student tries to cheat his way through his Physics exam by using a concealed radio to communicate with another student, but has to dress up to an absurd degree to hide his crude equipment and attracts the examiners attention by using radio jargon, but he seems to get away with it. However, the examiner promptly reveals a proper radio intercept suite in his bag, listens to the cheater call him a fool, and then activates a radio jammer before approaching the offender and blowing his cover. They both laugh at the disguise, and the student gets 5 (excellent) for his design (it is a technical faculty) and a 2 (fail) for the exam.

Segment "Operation Y"

A warehouse manager, trying to cover up his theft, hires three petty criminals nicknamed Fool (??????), Coward (????) and Pro (???????) to stage a break-in. Their elaborate plan goes wrong when Shurik is asked by his landlady, an elderly woman nicknamed Baboushka (Grandma) who usually guards the warehouse, to babysit her granddaughter during her shift, and once that proves to be too much for him, to replace her while she takes care of the child. Surprised, Coward fails to neutralize the guard using a handkerchief soaked in chloroform as planned, putting himself to sleep instead. The culmination of the story is the "Warehouse Battle", involving Shurik and the criminals using various impromptu weapons such as musical instruments and rapiers. The segment ends as an agitated Baboushka arrives at the warehouse and finds Shurik and the trio lying on a floor asleep � Coward having fainted earlier on, Fool and Pro having been "rendered harmless" by Shurik, and Shurik himself having fallen asleep after accidentally wiping his face with the chloroform soaked handkerchief.

Production

Reception

The film was enormously popular; it became the leader of Soviet film distribution in 1965 having 69.6 million viewers. The novel Deja vu, based on a story from a Polish magazine, won the Grand Prix Wawel Silver Dragon at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland in 1965.

The film became a fount of quotes for Soviet/Russian people.

In spring 2012 a monument to Lida and Shurik reading the class notes over her shoulder was installed in front of the Kuban State Technological University, Krasnodar.

Video release

At the end of the 1970s and the 1980s, the film was released on VHS as part of the series "Video Program of Goskino USSR". Starting in 1990, the film was released on VHS by the film association "Large Scale" (Krupniy plan) with Hi-Fi Stereo sound and encoded in PAL. Starting in 2001, Large Scale began fully restored releases of the film on DVD with enhanced video and sound quality using Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Mono and incorporating subtitles.