So as I said, there's a full retrospective here of the
男はつらいよ "It's hard to be a man" series, known colloquially as
Tora-san. The film series started in 1969 (based off a TV series where Torajiro was more of a Yakuza thug type, IIRC. I think this one is listed as lost footage.) and lasted up to 1997 plus an homage / clip show film in 2019, to close on a 50th film for the 50th anniversary.
The main actor, Kiyoshi Atsumi, stars in all films expect the homage one (he died late 90s) and 46 or 48 (I got conflicting info and I am not counting by myself) of the films were directed by Yōji Yamada.
Tora-san is Torajiro Kuruma, a middle age bachelor & itinerant salesman. Tora is always short on cash and goes to the four corners of Japan to try to offload products at the various festivals. He irregularly goes back to his birthplace and family home / pastry shop in Shibamata, Tokyo kept by his uncle and aunt. He also has a saintly sister, Sakura. She's married to Hiroshi who works in the printing workshop that is in the backyard (literally) and Tora has a nephew. The boss of the printing company, nicknamed The Squid (Takoyaki) also drops by to sample the food, insert himself in discussions and lament about how he's in the red.
I only started to see films starting at episode 11 so can't really comment if the early ones follow the same template but there's definitely a formula :
- Pre-credits will be a movie spoof or pastiche (chambara, UFO movies, Jaws...) featuring the main cast, generally revealed to be Tora dreaming as he sleeps in a field or shrine. Favorite one is the flying saucer sci-fi one where the characters are amazed that the spaceship (shaped like Tora's hat) works despite the budget limitations "of not being an American movie".
- Credits will roll over the main theme song, with Tora marching the banks of the Edo river back to his home and generally causing some mild havoc for bystanders here.
- Tora drops by his family but some innocuous slight or misunderstanding will have Tora mortally wounded in his pride, prompting him to leave (to eat / drink outside / back on the roads). For instance the family is feeding a stray dog who adopted them and they called him Tora.
-Tora will meet a woman he falls for but those never ever pan out.
- Tora will leave again due to heartbreak while his sister get to visit the woman who generally is now happily married / living her life. The various love interests are often played by famous actresses and a couple come back several times.
From the middle of the series they sometimes mix it up with Tora playing matchmaker or acting as a father figure, and he doesn't necessarily have a love plot of his own (though that's rare).
With as rapid a pace of production and releases, in some ways it's a continuous soap opera (the nephew grows up realistically, to name one aspect) but with the production values of a feature film by a big studio (in this case, the Shochiku company). Having the same director and I imagine crew for all of those probably helps keeping the visuals so consistent. All films so far have been in glorious scope, vivid colours and fantastic stylism, a joy to watch if you like Japanese films of that era. I expected the early 80s films to decline/shift visually as a lot of movies did worldwide around that time but so far it has not happened.
Oh and the whole series received stellar work in restoration (by Imagica) for the 50th anniversary. Like... Near flawless. Maybe they were lucky and all the film stock elements were in peak condition but still impressive.
As you may have guessed, Tora-san is a bit of an ideal self reflection of Japan. Almost each new film deals with a new locale where Tora go doing his sales thing, creating a diorama of the land-of-contrasts that is the province. Tora is a drifter, an outcast and not a model Japanese citizen but he has a massive heart of gold plus a form of earnestness that really wins everyone over. He's incredibly gracious about getting turned down (though he always flees to cope) which helps in toning down the potential cringe of a perpetual failing borderline nice-guy.
His family are hard workers, incredibly kind people, the shop is an intergenerational home almost. Sakura and Hiroshi deal with mortgage and buying a small home issues, Hiroshi can be a little vocal about labor conditions... There's definitely a neighborhood life and natural solidarity at work. The series is not incredibly socially militant but all those small things help make the characters feel real and sympathetic.
Episode 11, 1973
男はつらいよ 私の寅さん, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Watashi no tora-san?"A song of drifting"Tora meets an itinerant cabaret singer. They got great chemistry and bond over their similar nature.The cabaret singer, Lily (Kiyoko Matsuoka), comes back a couple of time in the series, she and Tora even live together in an episode I missed. The romance is pretty touching as they share the same sort of life. There's an hilarious subplot where Tora get so entranced by the real work, real lives of peasants he becomes a farm hand only to fall gravely ill after a solid day of field work (his sister have to tow him out back to Tokyo).
Episode 14, 1974
男はつらいよ 寅次郎子守唄, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō komoriuta "Pains of fatherhood"Tora meets a lone father who unexpectedly dumps his baby on him while scouting off. He crushes on the nurse helping them at the local clinic.This one I don't remember a lot of. The floor of quality of all the films I saw is really high though, so even if I forgot bits of it was fine.
Episode 17, 1976
男はつらいよ 寅次郎夕焼け小焼け, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō yūyake koyake "The red dragonfly"Tora meets and help an old man who is seemingly homeless. The senior is so drunk he takes Tora's bedroom for an inn. When he wants to apologize, Tora realizes the man is actually one of the greatest painter of the times. Tora also befriend a geisha who was scammed by a corrupt promoter.This one I really liked a lot, on the other hand. The plot is pretty rich, dense and the pacing is really good. The love interest (a fiery, loudmouth geisha played by an awesome Kiwako Taichi) is introduced fairly late, as is the whole "famous painter" reveal. Every subplot converge by the end and it is all pretty heartfelt despite the love story being a little stealthy (it's not said out loud and no one is sad by the end). Tora meeting "national living treasures" / famous artists and artisans becomes a bit of a recurrent plot point though so far that's the only one I saw.
Episode 19, 1977
男はつらいよ 寅次郎と殿様, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō to tonosama "Milord"Tora crushes on a young mourning lady while on his travel. He also befriend an old man who turns out to be the heir of the local aristocratic lineage. Tora accepts to look for the estranged widow of the lord's son in Tokyo...This episode is overtly fueled by the comedic interaction between Tora, the Lord (who in classic fashion he doesn't know at first who he is and treats as a fellow common man with his usual kindness) and the posh butler who tries to chase Tora out of the mansion. Big shock : The grieving widow of the beginning is the Lord's step-daughter. The reconciliation is touching.
Episode 20, 1977
男はつらいよ 寅次郎頑張れ!, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō ganbare! "The matchmaker"
Tora acts as a matchmaker between a shy electrician that is renting his room and the young waitress of the restaurant he eats at. Some lassive misunderstanding have the young man running back to his home. Tora goes to support him but crushes hard for his older sister.
I think it's the first time Tora is made a matchmaker. It works and having two love stories make the plot thick enough.
Episode 21, 1978
男はつらいよ 寅次郎わが道をゆく, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō wagamichi o yuku "Stage entrance"Tora falls for an old friend of his sister, who so now happens to be a music hall dancer for the Shochiku troupe. In parallel some young redneck doofus that took Tora as his seduction coach is also trying to wow a younger dancer.Can't help but feel there's some cross promotion for Shochiku going on here, with extensive sequences of the dancing company performing. It's a nice change of pace though for the series to be set in this showbiz world, with the love interest struggling to decide between being happily married or pursuing her career further (despite the job getting harder and harder as she ages). The dufus guy Tora mentors is a little too much on the comedic style of things (he constantly gets dumped by girls he wasn't really with to begin with), has a Star Wars cap and overall harks back to a form of 70s humour that didn't age very well.
Episode 23, 1979
男はつらいよ 翔んでる寅次郎, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Tonderu Torajirō "Guardian angel"Tora meets an aloof young woman in his travels, whom he saves from rape. She's due to her arranged wedding (she's high bourgeoisie) but hates the idea. She transforms into a runaway bride in the middle of the ceremony and takes refuge at Tora's family home.Sexual assault is turned into a joke (Tora "hilariously" blackmail the would be rapist for free hotel rooms) in manners that wouldn't fly as well today. The rest of the film is fine, the fiance does a lot of soul searching and decides to quit his comfy life (losing his heritage and family company cushy job) to live as a working guy. In the end the young couple marry, once more with feeling, in a small ceremony presided by Tora himself and his family.
Episode 24, 1979
はつらいよ 寅次郎春の夢, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō haru no yume "The american"An american itinerant salesman (Herb Adelman from The Golden Girls) trying to push vitamins in Japan is down on his luck. He ends up lodging at Tora's family who instantly warm up to how kind he us. When Tora, who hates America, comes back he fucking hates it though. He does behave himself after crushing on the mother of the english teacher of his nephew who acts as a go between for communication.Made even weirder by the English spoken parts not being subtitled in French for some reason. The joke is of course that Tora hates the poor guy (who also falls for Tora's sister !) when they're mirror images of one another, sporting the same jacket-hat-luggage combo. The American only tries to support his mother back in Alabama and finally goes home to tend to his own heartbreak. Of course he and Tora ultimately do bond even if they can't speak to each other. Sorta expected Tora to drift in Alabama, sadly.
Episode 26, 1980
男はつらいよ 寅次郎かもめ歌, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō kamome uta "A strange father"One of Tora's itinerant salesman acquaintance dies and Tora chaperons his daughter back to Tokyo so that she can attend night school and pursue her dreams of a diploma. Tora, who also dropped from school young, get the learning bug too...No love story and a more tragic backstory of itinerant salesmen having hard, poor lifes that pop up in two episodes from now. Maybe because the character is aging and becoming more and more of an hardened bachelor as years go by ? It's fine but I think the next one works better.
Episode 28, 1981
男はつらいよ 寅次郎紙風船, Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirō kamifūsen "The promise"Tora takes under his wing a runaway kid on his travels. He also promise one of his colleagues to marry his wife once he dies of a terminal illness... Which happens within the month. Tora got humiliated at a reunion of his school and really thinks about settling down.Same premise as episode 26 kinda. The runaway teen is just adorable and infectious. The whole settling down / being the black sheep of the community theme is explored more meaningfully. The love story is appropriately tragic and a little sour (they really like each other just fine but as she said "My husband asking you to promise this... Feels a bit like being treated as a pet or a commodity. I'm relieved you only said this to appease a dying man's wish").
I'll probably see a handful more.
