Stage-Struck Tora-san

Tora-san returns from his travels throughout Japan to his family's home in Tokyo to find his uncle recovering from an illness. After a family fight erupts, he returns to the road and becomes friends with Tomekichi. When the pair come to Tokyo, they both fall in love with stage dancers.^[1][3][4]

• Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō^[5]
• Chieko Baisho as Sakura
• Nana Kinomi as Nanako Beni
• Tetsuya Takeda as Tomekichi Gotō
• Masami Shimojō as Kuruma Tatsuzō
• Chieko Misaki as Tsune Kuruma (Torajiro's aunt)
• Gin Maeda as Hiroshi Suwa
• Hayato Nakamura as Mitsuo Suwa
• Hisao Dazai as Boss (Umetarō Katsura)
• Gajirō Satō as Genkō
• Hiroshi Inuzuka
• Raita Ryū as Detective
• Chishū Ryū as Gozen-sama
• Shinobu Azusa as Shinobu Fuji

Kiyoshi Atsumi was nominated for Best Actor at the Japan Academy Prize ceremony for his work in Stage-Struck Tora-san and the following film in the series, Talk of the Town Tora-san (also 1978). Yoji Yamada was also nominated for Best Director for these two films.^[6]

Stuart Galbraith IV writes that Stage-Struck Tora-san is one of the weaker entries in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo series. He notes that co-star Tetsuya Takeda, a popular comic actor in Japan at the time, comes across as hammy in western eyes. According to Galbraith, the film works best as a nostalgic look at late-1970s popular culture. The opening dream segment is a spoof of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and there are references to Pink Lady as well as glimpses into Japan's economic situation of the era.^[1] The German-language site molodezhnaja gives Stage-Struck Tora-san three out of five stars.^[7]

Stage-Struck Tora-san was released theatrically on August 5, 1978.^[8] In Japan, the film was released on videotape in 1996, and in DVD format in 2002 and 2005.^[9]