aka Tora-san in Love is a 1971 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada. It stars Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma (Tora-san), and Ayako Wakao as his love interest or "Madonna". (official site) Tora-san's Shattered Romance is the sixth entry in the popular, long-running Otoko wa Tsurai yo series.
Synopsis In Nagasaki, Tora helps a penniless young woman with a young child, on her way back to her father’s house on Goto Island after leaving her husband. The father tells her to return to the husband; Tora, listening to this, realizes he also must not depend on an assured home to return to… but hearing the whistle of the last ferry, he impulsively leaves for Tokyo. Meanwhile at the Shibamata sweet shop, Yuko, a distant relative of Tora’s aunt has also left her husband and is being given refuge, and Tora’s sister Sakura’s husband Hiroshi has plans to borrow money from his father, leave “Tako” Shacho (boss)’s print shop and set up on his own. Shacho is devastated, sure that he’ll go bankrupt without his best worker. Tora returns, falls for Yuko and makes the worst mess of mediating between Hiroshi and Shacho. Hiroshi’s father, however, doesn’t have money to lend, so Hiroshi agrees to stay. Yuko’s husband comes for her and she agrees to reconcile. Tora heads out again for New Year work. The Goto woman, husband and child, also reconciled, visit the sweet shop to thank the absent Tora. She calls her father who is stoically home alone.
Cast Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajiro Chieko Baisho as Sakura Ayako Wakao as Yūko Akashi Shin Morikawa as Kuruma Tatsuzō Chieko Misaki as Tsune Kuruma (Torajiro's aunt) Gin Maeda as Hiroshi Suwa Chishū Ryū as Gozen-sama Hisao Dazai as Tarō Ume Gajirō Satō as Genkō Hisaya Morishige as Senzō Nobuko Miyamoto as Kinuyo Tatsuo Matsumura as Doctor Yamashita Gorō Tarumi as Yūko's husband
Critical appraisal
For his work on Tora-san's Shattered Romance as well as the next two entries in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo series, Tora-san, the Good Samaritan and Tora-san's Love Call (all 1971), Yoji Yamada tied for Best Director at the Mainichi Film Awards with Masahiro Shinoda. The German-language site molodezhnaja gives Tora-san's Shattered Romance three and a half out of five stars.
Availability Tora-san's Shattered Romance was released theatrically on January 15, 1971. In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1983 and 1995, and in DVD format in 2005 and 2008.
References
Bibliography
English
German
Japanese
External links Tora-san's Shattered Romance at www.tora-san.jp (official site)