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Posted by NYC XYZ on 01/24/06 16:10
Hey Everybody,
Thanks for the insight! I doubt I'd get more than a few, but I'm
really curious about the "make" of these films and just have to see for
myself.
Thanks again!!
G. M. Watson wrote:
> ----------
> In article <12HAf.21120$PL5.4958@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com>, jimmy
> <wa6tkq@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> > These DVDs with english subtitles are available from YesAsia and DVD
> > Asian. Just do a search for "Tora-san". They are being released
> > gradually starting from the first one and they are up to number 25 now.
> >
> > NYC XYZ wrote:
> >> Hi, All:
> >>
> >> Know where this amazing franchise is available on DVD?
> >>
> >> Surely something which incurred 48 incarnations over 25 years is a
> >> must-see!
> >>
> >> I hear it's sentimental, I hear it's formulaic -- but it's a Japanese
> >> classic, a perennial favorite, full of panaramic Technicolor
> >> on-location sweeps of the Japanese countryside and cityscape.
> >>
> >> "Otoko wa tsurai yo" translates as "it's hard to be a man." These
> >> movies are the picaresque adventures of a lovable and all-too-human
> >> itinerant salesman of kitchenware who inevitably falls in love and is
> >> inevitably rejected, and whose schemes get himself or his family and
> >> friends into heaps of trouble but who's indefatigable and always
> >> returns to repeat the whole formula in the next episode. How could
> >> this be the 21st Century and no English editions available of this
> >> mainstream Japanese hit??
>
> Probably because once you see two or three Tora-Sans, you've seen them all.
> Also, the rather specialized nature of their Japaneseness means they have
> little to offer the average North American DVD buyer. Even in Japan,
> Tora-San appealed primarily to a conservative, older audience, who relished
> the series' nostalgic depiction of an idealized Japan they remembered
> vaguely from their youth, a Japan that had long since ceased to exist; a
> Japan of small old-fashioned neighborhoods that somehow survived in the
> middle of the urban landscape; neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone
> else, the sun always shone, people looked out for each other, and nothing
> really bad ever happened. The Tora-San series only came to an end after 27
> years when its indefatigable star, Atsumi Kiyoshi, died in 1996 at the age
> of 68. So identified was he with the role that continuing the series was
> simply impossible. More recently the series' creator, producer and long-time
> director, Yamada Yoji, has unexpectedly turned his attention to the Samurai
> genre; his excellent 2002 feature, "The Twilight Samurai", won wide acclaim;
> but its 2005 followup, "The Hidden Blade", is reportedly quite
> disappointing.
>
> The Tora-Sans were formulaic in the extreme, tho sorta fun in small doses
> (and it was nice to see Ryu Chishu, of Ozu fame, get so much work so late in
> life-- he always played the neighborhood priest). Recommended primarily for
> people who really, really enjoy "Coronation Street" or Andy Hardy movies.
> GMW
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