男はつらいよ お帰り 寅さん [Tora-san, Wish You Were Here] (2019) -
It took me almost 4 months to watch this longest-in-the-world film series spanning over 50 films and 50 years. Long story short, Tora-san is an oddball itinerant peddler who travels all around Japan. He has a family in Shibamata, Tokyo, which consists of his sister Sakura, nephew Mitsuo, his Uncle, and Aunt. However, he rarely ever visits his family and lives a free life of a wanderer. Every film has a so-called Madonna, a beautiful lady Tora-san falls in love with and is inevitably dumped by at the end. Sometimes he is not dumped but runs away after finding out the girl actually reciprocates his love. He's well-known as
that guy who never got married.
Yoji Yamada's handling of the series is nothing short of amazing. He co-wrote the films, too, making sure the seemingly repetitious premise is never dull or boring. Some films are better and some worse but they never get below the high standard of Yamada's filmmaking. All in all, the series is excellent, and even though it
could have been better, it's hard to demand that since Yamada still managed to keep the quality high in every film, often making two of them a year.
Tora-san, Wish You Were Here is the fiftieth (SIC!) installment in the series and most probably the last one. It combines new footage with scenes from the old movies in the form of Mitsuo's memories of Tora-san and his first love Izumi. Yamada is superhuman to release the fiftieth installment 24 years after the forty-ninth one with 10 actors from the original cast reprising their roles. Sakura, a young woman of 28 in the first installment is now a grandma of 77. You could literally see two-thirds of her life in these films. Just seeing these people, young then, old now, brings tears to my eyes. This is why long-spanning film series is superior to TV series. Time is a congruent ingredient in the first case. And no, digital (de-)aging is not the same thing and please can we stop using it?
The next part of my write-up is full of spoilers of the film, so you can stop reading if you think you will ever watch the series (it really makes no sense to just watch the final 50th film and ignore 49 other parts).
WARNING: "Tora-san series" spoilers below
So after all Mitsuo and Izumi did NOT end up together. I will never forgive you, Yamada. ;_;
I do get what Yamada wanted to say with this film but I really hoped Mitsuo will finally get together with Izumi. Yamada teased me with this possibility by first making Mitsuo's wife die 6 years prior to the time the movie takes place and then making Mitsuo reveal to Izumi that his wife is dead next to the end of the film. Izumi kissed him... and that's it. She didn't reveal she's divorced or that her husband also died, or that she lied to him about getting married, or anything else that would make it possible for them to stay together. Why not?! 
Maybe it's kinda juvenile but I hate that! I'd been waiting for their wedding since the first film Izumi appeared and now have to be satisfied with the idea that even though they both love each other, life is a bitch and they can't be together. Thanks, Yamada but I don't need films about what I'm living in my life.
In the end, Mitsuo lost his first love, and can't get her back because it's too late. He also lost his wife to an illness. Moreover, he also lost his dear uncle Tora-san whom he remembers from time to time and holds in great esteem. It's never explicitly stated that Tora-san died in the film's world but it's obvious the film is a tribute to the series and Kiyoshi Atsumi, the actor who played Tora and died of cancer in the 90s. At the end of the movie, Mitsuo sits alone in a dark room while a montage of all Madonnas in the series plays out to a great emotional effect. Mitsuo's only happiness is his daughter now. This is one of the darker shades of mono no aware.
The key to the movie (and even the entire series) lies in the question that Mitsuo posed to Tora-san in one of the earlier films (many bits of old footage are played again in Wish You Were Here). The question roughly states "What's the meaning of life?", and Tora's answer is (again, roughly): "Life's about all these little moments that make it worth living". Tora died unmarried but had some beautiful things happen to him in his life, and at least he was loved by Lily and Sakura and also loved many women. Mitsuo's entire happiness seems to stem from Izumi, though. Maybe it's because we never see his deceased wife (apart from a picture at the altar) and don't learn her story. Sure, he loves his daughter, but even the daughter seems to cheer him up saying she's OK with him remarrying. Mitsuo seems really disillusioned at the end of the film. He'll probably marry his daughter's English teacher (because his daughter likes her) and continue being unhappy dreaming and thinking about Izumi. Sure, Yamada may make part 51, which would be infinitely badass because he's 90 now, but I don't think he will. I guess the Tora series is concluded now. Mitsuo's character gave me these geisha from Ornamental Hairpin feels. Although he was just sitting at home and crying, he really seemed to have been walking up the stairs, holding an umbrella, and looking back into the past.
We're all standing on these stairs, heading onto the unfamiliar future, and, unsure and full of grief, taking this last look at our past, knowing it's irreversible. But our small dramas mean nothing compared to all the grief in the world, which Yamada seems to signal by showing all these pictures of Syrian refugees.
Blah blah blah BUT I WANT MY FILMS TO HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS!
So after all Mitsuo and Izumi did NOT end up together. I will never forgive you, Yamada. ;_;
I do get what Yamada wanted to say with this film but I really hoped Mitsuo will finally get together with Izumi. Yamada teased me with this possibility by first making Mitsuo's wife die 6 years prior to the time the movie takes place and then making Mitsuo reveal to Izumi that his wife is dead next to the end of the film. Izumi kissed him... and that's it. She didn't reveal she's divorced or that her husband also died, or that she lied to him about getting married, or anything else that would make it possible for them to stay together. Why not?!
Maybe it's kinda juvenile but I hate that! I'd been waiting for their wedding since the first film Izumi appeared and now have to be satisfied with the idea that even though they both love each other, life is a bitch and they can't be together. Thanks, Yamada but I don't need films about what I'm living in my life.
In the end, Mitsuo lost his first love, and can't get her back because it's too late. He also lost his wife to an illness. Moreover, he also lost his dear uncle Tora-san whom he remembers from time to time and holds in great esteem. It's never explicitly stated that Tora-san died in the film's world but it's obvious the film is a tribute to the series and Kiyoshi Atsumi, the actor who played Tora and died of cancer in the 90s. At the end of the movie, Mitsuo sits alone in a dark room while a montage of all Madonnas in the series plays out to a great emotional effect. Mitsuo's only happiness is his daughter now. This is one of the darker shades of mono no aware.
The key to the movie (and even the entire series) lies in the question that Mitsuo posed to Tora-san in one of the earlier films (many bits of old footage are played again in
Wish You Were Here). The question roughly states "What's the meaning of life?", and Tora's answer is (again, roughly): "Life's about all these little moments that make it worth living". Tora died unmarried but had some beautiful things happen to him in his life, and at least he was loved by Lily and Sakura and also loved many women. Mitsuo's entire happiness seems to stem from Izumi, though. Maybe it's because we never see his deceased wife (apart from a picture at the altar) and don't learn her story. Sure, he loves his daughter, but even the daughter seems to cheer him up saying she's OK with him remarrying. Mitsuo seems really disillusioned at the end of the film. He'll probably marry his daughter's English teacher (because his daughter likes her) and continue being unhappy dreaming and thinking about Izumi. Sure, Yamada may make part 51, which would be infinitely badass because he's 90 now, but I don't think he will. I guess the Tora series is concluded now. Mitsuo's character gave me these geisha from
Ornamental Hairpin feels. Although he was just sitting at home and crying, he really seemed to have been walking up the stairs, holding an umbrella, and looking back into the past.
We're all standing on these stairs, heading onto the unfamiliar future, and, unsure and full of grief, taking this last look at our past, knowing it's irreversible. But our small dramas mean nothing compared to all the grief in the world, which Yamada seems to signal by showing all these pictures of Syrian refugees.
Blah blah blah BUT I WANT MY FILMS TO HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS!
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