Tora-san Goes North

Tora-san Goes North

Theatrical poster
Directed by Yoji Yamada
Produced by Kiyoshi Shimizu
Hiroshi Fukazawa
Written by Yoji Yamada
Yoshitaka Asama
Starring Kiyoshi Atsumi
Toshirō Mifune
Keiko Takeshita
Music by Naozumi Yamamoto
Cinematography Tetsuo Takaba
Edited by Iwao Ishii
Distributed by Shochiku
Release dates
  • 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), and Keiko Takeshita as his love interest or "Madonna".[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 in his relationships with his estranged daughter, and a woman in whom he is secretly interested.[3][4]

Cast

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] The German-language site molodezhnaja gives Tora-san Goes North three and a half out of five stars.[7]

Availability

Tora-san Goes North was released theatrically on August 15, 1987.[8] In Japan, the film has been released on videotape in 1996, and in DVD format in 1997, 2002, and 2008.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "OTOKO WA TSURAIYO -SHIRETOKO BOJO". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  2. ↑ "男はつらいよ 知床慕情 (Madonna)" (in Japanese). www.tora-san.jp. Retrieved 2010-02-01. (official site)
  3. ↑ 男はつらいよ 知床慕情 (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008-12-31). "Tora-san 38: Tora-san Goes North (Region 2)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  5. ↑ 男はつらいよ 知床慕情 (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  6. ↑ "Awards for Otoko wa tsurai yo: Shiretoko bojô (1987)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  7. ↑ "Tora-San Goes North" (in German). www.molodezhnaja.ch. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  8. ↑ "男はつらいよ 知床慕情". Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  9. ↑ 男はつらいよ　知床慕情 (1987) (in Japanese). www.allcinema.net. Retrieved 2010-02-01.

Bibliography

English

German

Japanese

External links