Tora-san Goes North

Tora-san Goes North
Tora-san Goes North
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Yoji Yamada
Written by	Yoji Yamada; Yoshitaka Asama
Produced by	Kiyoshi Shimizu; Hiroshi Fukazawa
Starring	Kiyoshi Atsumi; Toshirō Mifune; Keiko Takeshita
Cinematography	Tetsuo Takaba
Edited by	Iwao Ishii
Music by	Naozumi Yamamoto
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	August 15, 1987;
Running time	107 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Tora-san Goes North (男はつらいよ知床慕情, Otoko wa Tsurai yo: Shiretoko Bojō) aka Torasan, Remind Shiretoke^[1] is a 1987 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada. It stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma (Tora-san), Keiko Takeshita as the film's "Madonna", and Toshiro Mifune as Takeshita's father.^[2] Tora-san Goes North is the thirty-eighth entry in the popular, long-running Otoko wa Tsurai yo series.

Synopsis

When his travels take him to rural Hokkaido, Tora-san helps a cantankerous old veterinarian (Mifune) in his relationships with his estranged daughter, and a woman in whom he is secretly interested.^[3]^[4]

Cast

Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō^[5]
Chieko Baisho as Sakura
Keiko Takeshita as Rinko
Toshiro Mifune as Junkichi Ueno
Keiko Awaji as Etsuko
Shimojo Masami as Kuruma Tatsuzō
Chieko Misaki as Tsune Kuruma (Torajiro's aunt)
Gin Maeda as Hiroshi Suwa
Hidetaka Yoshioka as Mitsuo Suwa
Hisao Dazai as Boss (Umetarō Katsura)
Jun Miho as Akemi
Gajirō Satō as Genkō
Chishū Ryū as Gozen-sama
Issei Ogata as The doctor

Critical appraisal

Toshirō Mifune was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Japan Academy Prize for his role in Tora-san Goes North. He won awards for Best Supporting Actor at the Blue Ribbon Awards and the Mainichi Film Award ceremonies. Keiko Awaji was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Japan Academy Prize.^[6] Stuart Galbraith IV writes that Tora-san Goes North is "funny, charming, and ultimately quite moving". The film unites Mifune and Keiko Awaji who had appeared together forty years earlier in Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949). Noting that Mifune rarely found a good part in the last two decades of his career, Galbraith judges Tora-san Goes North to be "an utterly charming film that gives the great actor one of his last good roles."^[4] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times states that this entry in the series is a "little tougher-minded and a little less sentimental than usual, which is all to the good" and that Yamada had "created a role ideal for Mifune."^[7] The German-language site molodezhnaja gives Tora-san Goes North three and a half out of five stars.^[8]

Availability

Tora-san Goes North was released theatrically on August 15, 1987.^[9] In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1996, and in DVD format in 1997, 2002, and 2008.^[10]