Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp

Otoko wa Tsuraiyo, the first film of the many serires, is a masterpiece of a Japanese cinematic arts at its peak. Despite the simple and mundane story, the character development and the excellent performance of the entire casts portrays the dynamic relations of the characters. The cinematography, specially the camera techniques portrays the characters emotional status and transformation moreover it allows the audience to immerse into the world of Tora-san and the relations he has with other characters. The film, and the following Tora-san series serves as a canon, a model for future cinematic arts in Japan.

Besides being an itinerant salesman, Tora san also shows adeptness as a Palm-Reader. At those times he is shown promoting his Palmistry by prominently displaying a huge banner which depicts a diagram of the human palm with its designated lines.

Tora san's Palmistry is reflective of the acceptance with which Palm-reading is viewed by Japan and the Orient in general. Strolling down the Ginza nowadays, one can see an occasional Palm-Reader who has set up a table along the pedestrian walkways. Even more so in China where even their temples have a resident soothsayer. Not surprising when you consider that Palm-Reading is said to have originated in China.

It seems amazing to many people that this series of movies went on to number 48 over 25 years. But each film is strangely compelling and quite different, even though the basic format is the same.

Tora-san is a deeply flawed but intensely 'real' individual: lazy, vain, semi-literate, petulant, mendacious, funny, child-like, generous, sentimental. A real pain for everyone around him (most of all his long-suffering family), but nevertheless likable for all that. He is no one-dimensional character -- Atsumi's acting is breathtakingly larger than life. A lot of the credit must be due to the directorial skills of Yamada, who coaxes fine natural performances from all his actors.

There are a lot of underlying themes in the Tora-san films. Class certainly is one. Shibamata, Tora-san's hometown, is lower working class. Tora-san himself is 'yakuza-poi' -- not one of the notorious gangsters one thinks of as 'yakuza', but a small-time drifter and seller of cheap books and trashy objects -- he tries his hand at various other jobs (like farming in Hokkaido), but always fails and returns to his itinerant way of life. His speech patterns and pugnacious character (not to mention his dress) signify his status immediately to any Japanese. Much of the comic tension in these films derives from the discomfort Tora's earthy presence provokes when among those of finer social pretensions.

The other more overt theme is Tora's endless disappointment in love. Although women find him a charming comedian, none can conceive of him as a serious love interest. Tora's fascination with women is curiously asexual -- there is never any leering or lustful aspect to it. Rather, he develops a sudden dog-like attachment to pretty young women he encounters by chance, his family---and the audience---knowing it is doomed from the start.

It is indeed a shame more of these films are not available in English, but on the other hand, a good translation of the very idiomatic Japanese would be difficult to achieve.

*UPDATE*: As of August 2008, Shochiku has released a new edition of the Tora-san films on DVD, WITH English SUBTITLES!

This first film in what is purported to be the longest run series in film history tells the tale of Tora-San, an itinerant peddler who is thrown out of his father's house twenty years before but reconnects with his aunt, uncle and sister Sakura (the very pretty and sweet Chieko Baisho). Tora wreaks some havoc in their lives, like getting drunk and silly at a marriage meeting and ruining Sakura's chance to marry someone, as well as just being a real pain to those around him. There is a sentimental side to him also, and the best way to describe him is that he grows on you. This film features smallish roles by two of the greatest actors in film history, Chishu Ryu as a priest and Takashi Shimura, as Sakura's prospective father in law. They light up the screen when they're in the film. Kind of a film about a bygone era in Japan, as itinerant peddlers are all but gone, this film reminds me somewhat of the two "Always Sunset On Third Street" films, as they are also about a bygone era. Crazy, funny & sentimental, this film delivers. I have not seen any of the rest (so far, anyway) of the films in this series, but I am intrigued. Atsumi Kiyoshi, who plays Tora, is good in this. I recommend it, its a very good film.

First "Tora-san" feature sets up format for the rest of the series, with Tora-san returning home to Shibamata after many years estranged from his family. Atsumi is hilarious, Baisho luminous, and Yamada's screenplay and direction is sensitive yet uncomprimising. As Kevin Thomas of the "LA Times" told me for an article I wrote on the series, these pictures are "sentimental, but in the good sense of the word." The real surprise here is the appearance of Takashi Shimura ("Seven Samurai," "Ikiru") as Hiroshi Suwa's estranged father. His scenes and how they relate to Tora-san's own life, is emotionally powerful stuff sprinkled with some very funny moments as well. It's really a shame that NONE of these movies are presently available on home video in the United States.