Tora-san's Love Call
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''aka'' ''Tora-san's Love Song'' is a 1971 Japanese comedy film directed by
Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director best known for his ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series of films and his Samurai Trilogy ('' The Twilight Samurai'', '' The Hidden Blade'' and '' Love and Honor''). Biography Yamada was born in Osaka, but due to his father' ...
. It stars
Kiyoshi Atsumi , born , was a Japanese actor. He is best known for portraying Tora-san in the Japanese comedy film series Otoko wa Tsurai yo, a role he played 48 times over 26 years. Life and career Atsumi was born in Tokyo suffering from childhood malnutr ...
as Torajirō Kuruma (Tora-san), and
Junko Ikeuchi , known professionally as , was a Japanese actress. She joined the film studio Shintoho after being recruited from Mitsukoshi's Nihonbashi store, and subsequently starred in films and television series like ''Super Giant'' (1957), '' The Ghost of ...
as his
love interest (; ) were stock characters within the theatre style known as commedia dell'arte, who appeared in 16th-century Italy. In the plays, everything revolved around the lovers in some regard. These dramatic and posh characters were present within pl ...
or "Madonna". ''Tora-san's Love Call'' is the eighth entry in the popular, long-running ''
Otoko wa Tsurai yo is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma, whose nickname is , a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. The series itself is often referred to as "''Tora-san''" by its fans. Spanning 48 installments rel ...
'' series.


Synopsis

Hoping to find rest from his wandering life, Tora-san returns home. He becomes infatuated with a widow and leaves to travel again, keeping his feelings secret.


Cast

*
Kiyoshi Atsumi , born , was a Japanese actor. He is best known for portraying Tora-san in the Japanese comedy film series Otoko wa Tsurai yo, a role he played 48 times over 26 years. Life and career Atsumi was born in Tokyo suffering from childhood malnutr ...
as Torajirō *
Chieko Baisho is a Japanese actress and singer. In Japan, she is well known for her performance as Sakura in the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series from 1969 until 1995. In addition, she has acted in many films directed by Yōji Yamada since the 1960s. She won t ...
as Sakura *
Takashi Shimura was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1934 and 1981. He appeared in 21 of Akira Kurosawa's 30 films (more than any other actor), including as a lead actor in '' Drunken Angel'' (1948), '' Rashomon'' (1950), '' Ikiru'' (1952) ...
as Hyōichirō Suwa (Hiroshi's father) *
Shin Morikawa Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese giv ...
as Tatsuzō (Torajiro's uncle) *
Chishū Ryū was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting 65 years, appeared in over 160 films and about 70 television productions. Early life Ryū was born in Tamamizu Village, Tamana, Kumamoto, Tamana County, a rural area of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu ...
as Gozen-sama *
Gin Maeda (born February 21, 1944) is a Japanese actor. He had a regular role in the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' films, beginning with the first in the series (1969), as Sakura's husband. Filmography Film *''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series (1969–2019), Hiroshi S ...
as Hiroshi Suwa * Yasukiyo Umeno as Tsuyoshi Suwa *
Takanobu Hozumi , better known as , was a Japanese actor from Ōhito, Shizuoka (now Izunokuni) attached to Mausu Promotion. He died of gallbladder cancer at the age of 87. Filmography Live-action Film * '' Baka ga Tank Deyattekuru'' (xxxx) (Officer Momota ...
as Osamu Suwa * Yoshio Yoshida as Director of travelling company of actors * Chieko Misaki as Torajiro's aunt *
Hisao Dazai Hisao (written: 央生, 久生, 久雄, 寿雄, 寿夫, 尚雄, 尚久 or 尚勇) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese voice actor *, Japanese government official *, Japanese baseball player *, Japa ...
as Tarō Ume


Critical appraisal

For his work on ''Tora-san's Love Call'', and the previous two entries in the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series, ''Tora-san, the Good Samaritan'', and '' Tora-san's Shattered Romance'' (all 1971),
Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director best known for his ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series of films and his Samurai Trilogy ('' The Twilight Samurai'', '' The Hidden Blade'' and '' Love and Honor''). Biography Yamada was born in Osaka, but due to his father' ...
tied for Best Director at the
Mainichi Film Award The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by ''Mainichi Shimbun'' (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of t ...
s with
Masahiro Shinoda was a Japanese film director, whose career spanned over four decades and covered a wide range of genres and styles. He was one of the central figures of the Japanese New Wave during the 1960s and 1970s. He directed films for Shochiku Studio fro ...
. The German-language site molodezhnaja gives ''Tora-san's Love Call'' three and a half out of five stars.


Availability

''Tora-san's Love Call'' was released theatrically on November 20, 1971. In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1983 and 1995, and in DVD format in 1995 and 2008.


References


Bibliography


English

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German

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Japanese

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External links


''Tora-san's Love Call''
at www.tora-san.jp (official site) {{Yoji Yamada 1971 films Films directed by Yoji Yamada 1971 comedy films 1970s Japanese-language films Otoko wa Tsurai yo films Japanese sequel films Shochiku films Films with screenplays by Yôji Yamada 1970s Japanese films