Sequel Mania: XXX Going on L

Japan's Tora-San films stretch on and on and on

Hollywood in 1983 will be banking heavily on sequels, everything from The Sting II and Porky's II: The Next Day to Superman III and The Revenge of the Jedi. But it will take a long time to catch up to the Japanese. While crowds are still lining up to see the newest sequel in the Tora-San film series, No. XXX to be exact, they can already start thinking about XXXI and XXXII, both of which will be out before the end of the year.

As was the case with I through XXIX, No. XXX has the same basic cast and follows the same basic plot: the half-sad, half-funny adventures of a middle-aged ne'er-do-well through a bustling modern-day Japan. The collective title of the series is A Man's Life Is Tough, but Get Out Your Handkerchiefs might be more apt.

Tora-San is a peddler who hawks his wares at local fairs around the country. He spends the rest of his time with relatives who run a sweet shop in Tokyo's working-class Shibamata district and do little else but eat noodles, prepare to eat noodles or sit around the noodle table. He almost always wears the same outfit, a double-breasted check suit flapping open without a tie, and a green hat. He is a boor, and he treats his long-suffering family like servants. But the Japanese, who know all about pearl fishing, believe that beneath that crusty shell is a treasure of kindness and concern.

In each of the films, Tora-San (Kiyoshi Atsumi) falls in love with a handsome woman. At the end it doesn't work out for one reason or another. He always looks as if his heart will break, and audiences all over Japan cry on cue. Since the first movie was introduced in 1969, an estimated 40 million people have been drawn to that familiar story, and 4 million more are expected to see the latest, which opened in theaters just before New Year's. Atsumi, 54, has become the best-known actor in the country, and no movie actress is considered a true success until she has played a Tora-San heroine.

By Hollywood standards, the latest Tora-San budget, $1.6 million, would fall under the heading "Etc." Yet the one now playing, in which Tora-San plays a Nipponese Cyrano de Bergerac, is almost certain to gross $8 million.

If the plot sounds as if it was borrowed from television, the reason is simple: it was. Tora-San began in 1968 as a TV series, but failed to impress network executives. When Tora-San dropped dead after being bitten by a snake, infuriated fans clogged switchboards in protest. The chief fan was Director Yoji Yamada, 51, who persuaded a reluctant film company to let him make just one Tora-San film for general release.

That snake venom should be patented. The picture proved such an instantaneous hit that Yamada was ordered to turn out three more in four months. Since then the pace has slowed, and dedicated Tora-trekkies know that their hero will visit once in August and again just before the new year. Despite the speed at which they are made, the movies are surprisingly polished. After so much time on the assembly lines, the actors are pros, and Yamada keeps the action moving smartly.

The phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by those who make a living explaining such things. To some Japanese sociologists, Tora-San is a Walter Mitty in reverse. Instead of representing the daydream of success, as Mitty did for Americans, Tora-San is a symbol of freedom in an overly disciplined society. "The higher the degree of discipline in a society, the more escapist its members are likely to be," says Kazuo Shimada, a Tokyo psychologist. Yamada also sees Tora-San as a figure of compassion in a country short of both. "We're always in such a hurry that we end up disregarding those people suffering by the roadside," says Yamada. "Tora-San would never fail to stop and see how he could help them."

How many more Tora-Sans will there be? Probably fewer than 20, says Yamada, who explains that eventually the cast will become too old to maintain the pictures' vitality. Replacements would be unthinkable--Atsumi's bland, square face is almost as well known as the Emperor's--and Tora-San presumably will die not from public neglect but old age. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.