Tora-san's Forget Me Not

This is the 11th installment of the world's longest running movie series (with 49 movies to the series) featuring Torajiro or commonly known as Tora-san played by Kiyoshi Atsumi. It is also the signature movie series penned and directed by Yoji Yamada who has found more international fame in recent years with his samurai movies.

In this episode, we see Tora-san returning home again to meet a traveling singer named Lily (Ruruko Asaoka) who will be his love interest in more episodes than any other "Tora-san Madonnas" (in total of 4 episodes).

There is no real story to this episode asides from showing the ordinary life style of people around Tora-san. But each of the scenes are immaculately crafted to highlight the values Japanese cherish in their life style. Indeed this is why this series had such longevity.

It's amazing that the regulars of this series never got bored with their roles, and continued to produce quality movies for over 20 years. The depiction of life in downtown Tokyo is ordinary, yet classy in its own ways, as Yojiro Yamada always seems to bring to his movies.

By watching this movie series, we're invited into the side of Japanese lifestyle we never get to see elsewhere.