A Tora-san for the 21st century? “The Taste of Fish” opens this weekend

by Chris MaGee

Following on the heels of the news of the 40th anniversary of the Tora-san films here’s news of a new film series that Shochiku hopes will be as popular and long-lived as the adventures of the loveable traveling salesman. As we reported back in April Shochiku decided to turn the one-off film “The Taste of Fish” about a successful, but unhappy businessman who inherits a fish stall in the legendary Tsukiji Fish Market from his ailing father into a full-fledged series. The manga by Mitsuo Hashimoto that “The Taste of Fish” is based on ended up spanning 21 volumes, so there would definitely be enough material to churn out a series, and director Shingo Matsubara and the folks t Shochiku have assembled an impressive cast that includes Takao Osawa, Ren Osugi, Rena Tanaka and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, but it remains to be seen if the public will turn it into a franchise that will rival Tora-san’s 48 films over 27 years record. Come Monday I’ll be curious to see how this performs at the box office.

Here’s the trailer for “The Taste of Fish”, so you can see whether this has the potential to be the Tora-san of the 21st century. Sorry, the quality isn’t great, but Nippon Cinema has two high quality alternate trailers, plus full plot details.