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Tora-san, the Intellectual
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Wikipedia article
'aka' 'Tora-san Meets a Lady Scholar' is a 1975 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada. It stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajir Kuruma (Tora-san), and Fumie Kashiyama as his love interest or "Madonna". (official site) 'Tora-san, the Intellectual' is the sixteenth entry in the popular, long-running 'Otoko wa Tsurai yo' series.
Synopsis
Tora-san returns to his family's shop in Shibamata, Tokyo to find himself accused of being the father of a 17-year-old girl. It turns out that Tora-san had only given help to the girl's mother after her husband had left her. Tora-san becomes infatuated with the female archeology student who is staying with his family, and attempts to take up intellectual pursuits to get near her.
Cast
* Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajir
* Chieko Baisho as Sakura
* Fumie Kashiyama as Reiko
* Junko Sakurada as Junko Mogami
* Keiju Kobayashi as Professor Tadokoro
* Masami Shimoj as Tatsuz Kuruma (Torajiro's uncle)
* Chieko Misaki as Tsune Kuruma (Torajiro's aunt)
* Gin Maeda as Hiroshi Suwa
* Hayato Nakamura as Mitsuo Suwa
* Hisao Dazai as Boss (Umetar Katsura)
* Gajir Sat as Genk
* Chish Ry as Gozen-sama
Critical appraisal
A 1977 review in 'The New York Times' judged 'Tora-san, the Intellectual' to be "genuinely warm and charming". The review commented that Yoji Yamada's script was "convoluted" and the directing "uneven", but that "Mr. Yamada is decidedly professional in shaping a colorful and briskly moving story," and that the film as a whole "project[s] contemporary Japanese family life and ties realistically and affectionately." The German-language site molodezhnaja gives 'Tora-san, the Intellectual' three and a half out of five stars.
Availability
'Tora-san, the Intellectual' was released theatrically on December 27, 1975. In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1996, and in DVD format in 2005 and 2008. The film played for two days in New York in 1977 during which time it received a review in 'The New York Times'.
References
Bibliography
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