Movie “It’s tough being a man” and Japanese culture.

“I was born and brought up in Shibamata, Katsushika and I was blessed at Taishakuten Temple. Kuruma is my family name and my given name is Torajiro. But people usually just call me Tora, Tora the street peddler” which are famous words in the movie and most Japanese know them.

I watched a famous Japanese movie “Otoko wa Tsuraiyo” or “It’s tough being a man”, one of forty-eight series of movies yesterday.

Sometimes, it’s very hard to explain Japanese culture, but you can find it rather easily by watching movies like these.
The main actor of these movies is Kiyoshi Atumi who played the character of Torasan in the movies for more than 30 years and died on July 4, 1996.
The director of the Torasan films, Yoji Yamada who was a dominant director of the 1970s often explains that his aim is to show kind, meek and gentle quality of the Japanese people.
These films show two motifs of Japanese culture and dream: the everyday collective life of a family and the adventures of a lonely wanderer.