Tora-san, the Matchmaker

The "Otoko wa tsurai yo" -franchise started in 1969, and by 1979, Shochiku had stabilized the flow of these films to cinemas with 23 installations - and half more to come. In the beginning of this film, Sakura and Hiroshi attend a friend's wedding, which makes them think that it has already been 10 years since they themselves were married. In this time, Mitsuo has grown to be a schoolboy, but his drifting uncle has not developed that much. Tora returns home, and reads Mitsuo's school paper about his family, which makes him really angry, so he runs away to Hokkaido. There he stops a woman from being raped, and afterwords becomes a sort of life-coach for her.

Only three films after "Tora-san plays cupid" we get a film called "Tora-san, the Matchmaker". The names of these films are as hard to remember as those of the Zatoichi franchise. This installation is not one of the better ones. The opening dream sequence featured a mad scientist narrative where Tora was a doctor working to find a cure for constipation. What I found most interesting about the whole film was the casual way it treated sexual harassment. Tora is perfectly ok not reporting the guy to police, if this helps him get free stuff from him. Then again, how dark can you expect a Tora-san film to get?