It's Tough Being a Man

It's Tough Being a Man (男はつらいよ) (Am I Trying) (Tora-san Our Lovable Tramp) is a 1969 Japanese comedy film directed by Yoji Yamada and starring Kiyoshi Atsumi. It is the first entry in the popular, long-running Otoko wa Tsurai yo series.

Plot
Torajiro Kuruma returns for the first time in 20 years to the neighborhood where he was born, Shibamata in Katsushika, Tokyo, He comes back in the middle of Taishakuten temple's Koshin Shinko Festival. After jumping into the festival procession, he has a teary reunion with his uncle, aunt, and his sister Sakura. The next day, he joins his sister at her matchmaking meeting with the son of a company president. Tora's boorish and drunken behavior at the meeting ruins Sakura's chances of marriage. After getting into a huge fight with his uncle over his behavior at the meeting, he leaves home and heads to Nara. While there, he meets and falls in love with a young woman named Fuyuko. They return to Shibamata together and spend time together as if they were couple. At the same time, Sakura meets a print shop worker, Hiroshi. While Sakura and Hiroshi get married, Tora's relationship with Fuyuko is fleeting, as she is engaged to another man. Broken-hearted, Torajiro leaves after writing a letter of advice for Fuyuko, asking her to help take care of his sister and her new baby.

Cast

 * Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajiro
 * Chieko Baisho as Sakura
 * Sachiko Mitsumoto as Fuyuko Tsubouchi
 * Chishū Ryū as Gozen-sama
 * Takashi Shimura as Hyōichirō Suwa
 * Shin Morikawa as Kuruma Tatsuzō
 * Gin Maeda as Hiroshi Suwa
 * Masaaki Tsusaka as Noboru Kawamata
 * Gajirō Satō as Genkichi (Man at the Temple)
 * Keiroku Seki as Master of Ceremonies
 * Chieko Misaki as Tsune Kuruma (Torajiro's aunt)
 * Hisao Dazai as Tarō Ume (Print Shop)
 * Shunsuke Ōmi as Manager
 * Taichirō Hirokawa as Michio
 * Fusatarō Ishijima as Michio's father
 * Matsuko Shiga as Michio's mother

Critical appraisal
The Mainichi Film Awards and the Kinema Junpo Awards chose Kiyoshi Atsumi as the Best Actor for his role in It's Tough Being a Man, and Yoji Yamada was given the Best Director prize at the Mainichi Film Awards. The Japanese academic film magazine Kinema Junpo gives It's Tough Being a Man a rating of five out of five stars.

Availability
It's Tough Being a Man was released theatrically on August 27, 1969. In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1995 and 1996, and in DVD format in 2008. AnimEigo released the film on DVD in the US along with the other first four films in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo series on November 24, 2009.