Being a Fake Man is Tough (2020)

A modern day Tora-san

One year after the 50th anniversary of the first Tora-san movie this drama went on the small screen. It re-tells the story of our hero Tora-san as it would happen in present time. After 30 years on the road, Tora returns to Osaka (opposed to Tokyo in the movies), where his family runs a dango shop in an old shopping street. He meets all the characters we know from the movies: his sister Sakura, her husband Hiroshi and son Mitsuo, his uncle and aunt, the company president from next door and the priest from the nearby temple. Even the dango shop looks similar to the one from the movies.

Storylines are taken from the first movie and at least 2 more: Tora-san's Dear Old Home (with Sayuri Yoshinaga as Utako) and Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset (the one about his meetings with painter Ikeuchi and geisha Botan).

The actors are doing their jobs well, the stories already had proven to be entertaining and even the location change to Osaka is fine with me. So everything seems familiar, but unfortunately it completely lacks the charm of the movies and the 5 episode prequel Shonen Torajiro. Maybe simply re-telling the known stories with a different cast is the reason why it does not work, at least for me.

Even fans of the movies don't have to be disappointed that no subtiles are available (as far as I know).

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