Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro haibisukasu no hana

The previous entry, "Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirô haru no yume" (Tora-san's Dream of Spring, 1979) was a franchise high, one of the rare installations that really stand out. Since there very rarely are two good ones in row, we are now in for a dud. "Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro haibisukasu no hana" (Tora-san's Tropical Fever, 1980) is the 25th film in the franchise, and the first one that came out in the 1980's.

Perhaps due to the American influence in the previous film, Yamada and the gang felt that this, too, needed a more exotic flavor to it. So what they decided to do was put Tora in an airplane for the first time in his life, and fly him down to Okinawa. The motivation stems from a letter he receives from Lily the lounge singer, where she informs him that she is critically ill in a hospital.

The hardcore fans might be confused by this. Didn't we already have a plotline about Tora falling in love with a lady who was terminally ill? Yes, we did. In "Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajirô junjô shishû" (Tora's Pure Love, 1976). But that was seven films ago and the ones who remember plot details from these films so well are in for the long run. And since the "dying" character this time around is Lily, it makes things at least a little different.

Where there was a clear effort in the previous film, this one seems to be on autopilot. Yamada misses much of the potential. For instance, we do not get to actually see Tora in an airplane, which could have been a good source of comedy, since he has a fear of flying. Also the Okinawa setting isn't put to much use, and after a while, this is a very forgettable entry. Interestingly, after Atsumi's death in 1996, Shochiku was mortified with the loss of their money-cow franchise. They decided to push this film into theaters for a second run, with some new footage, that was added using computer graphics. Thankfully they did not do this for the other films. We'd be here forever.

What I remember from Tora san is that besides being a Salesman, he was also adept at Palm reading. To promote his Palmistry, he used to erect a big banner which showed a diagram of the human hand with the designated Palm lines.

If you take a stroll down the Ginza nowadays, you can see fortune tellers on the sidewalk plying their trade. Apparently Palmistry is more acceptable in the Orient as compared with the West. Another kind of divination is Omikuji which is done at the Shinto temples in Japan.

Along similar lines as Tora san's Palm reading is the movie "KARASUDO the Palm-reading Samurai" starring actor Shigeru Amachi. But in the movies, the first to read palms was Tora san.

It really focuses in on Tora and knows when to cut away and utilise the supporting cast. The visuals are unique, thanks both to the setting and some inventive sequences (like that airplane montage, which I'm still not really sure what that was about... the dreamy aquarium sequence was great, though).

Speaking of dreams, I loved them as a theme here throughout the whole film (not just the opening dream sequence). Tora comes close to living what he thought his dream life was, but he has to grapple with whether it's actually satisfying enough, or even if it's what he really wanted in the first place. And this provides a relatively fresh side of the character.

There's some funny stuff of course- I like what might be a running gag of some unseen towns-person scolding her children to not do something "unless they want to end up like Tora", and Octopus' knack for imploding awkward situations is always funny.

Music is usually good in this series, but this instalment really went an extra steps with a fantastic score throughout that really helped amplify the emotions in some of the film's more serious scenes.

It might not be an ideal entry point for the series, given that Tora and Lily's bond is explored in a prior entry or two (or three? I lost count a bit), but otherwise, this has almost everything you'd want from a Tora-san film, and paces itself well over a 103-minute runtime that I reckon it by and large earns.

Really good stuff, and a strong milestone to mark the halfway point of the series.