Basic Plot
All of the Tora-san movies had the same basic plot with some minor variations. Kuruma Torajirō (or Tora-san), a traveling salesman whose sole possessions include only the contents of a small suitcase, the clothes on his back and some pocket money, wanders from town to town peddling his wares. He yearns to return to his home in Shibamata, Katsushika, Tokyo. His sole surviving family members include Sakura (his kind-hearted half-sister), Hiroshi (Sakura's husband), Mitsuo (Sakura and Hiroshi's son), Tatsuzō (Tora-san's elderly uncle) and Tsune (Tora-san's elderly aunt). Tatsuzō and Tsune run a traditional sweets (Dango) shop in Shibamata. The film often begins with Tora-san dreaming of doing grand deeds, anxious to be worthy of his family, usually resulting in disappointment and subsequent awakening.
Tora-san unexpectedly drops in on his family. While the family is glad to see him, Tora-san's stay eventually causes some kind of ruckus and usually a violent family argument ensues. He then storms off with his belongings just as suddenly as he arrived.
Some time later, he arrives in some remote town planning to peddle his wares to the locals. There, he meets the "Madonna", a local damsel in distress. Tora-san usually tells the damsel to look him up at his family's dango shop in Shibamata. The damsel takes him up on his offer and Tora-san invariably returns. Torasan falls head over heels in love with her (though he always seems oblivious to his own feelings). However, in his shy efforts to win the Madonna's heart, Tora usually ends up inadvertently bringing her together with an old flame or another man. Tora-san invariably ends up heartbroken but puts on a brave face and wanders off again on his journey to heal his broken heart.
Read more about this topic: Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo
Famous quotes containing the words basic and/or plot:
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied ... and it is all one.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (b. 1908)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)