‘BLUEBIRD’: TORA-SAN NO. 37 IS BITTERSWEET

There could be no film more appropriate to open the Little Tokyo Cinema tonight than “Tora-san’s Bluebird Fantasy,” which is No. 37 in the beloved, record-setting series.

It’s the perfect picture to provide continuity with the much-missed Kokusai Theatre, which the Little Tokyo now replaces. The Tora-sans, which are the Shochiku Company’s perennial moneymakers in Japan, were the most popular attractions at the Kokusai (which closed six months ago, leaving Los Angeles without a Japanese-language theater for the first time in decades).

As always, the Tora-sans begin with a dream sequence. This time, Tora (Kiyoshi Atsumi), our feckless itinerant peddler, dreams he’s leading his relatives in a pursuit of the bluebird of happiness, which takes them to a veritable Shangri-La. Alas, the ticket-taker at the entrance to this paradise becomes a train conductor nudging Tora awake so he can collect his ticket.

Once again we find Tora traversing the countryside, peddling his wares; once again, he befriends a beautiful young woman (played this time by Etsuko Shiomi) only to fall in love with her and be forced to stand by and watch her become involved with a younger man.

It’s a story that writer-director Yoji Yamada and co-writer Yoshitaka Asama have told countless times before, but here there’s a special poignancy: Not once does Tora declare his feelings, denying them even to himself, because he knows he’s too old for her and too much of a rolling stone to settle down with any woman.

More than ever, Tora seems a Japanese Mary Worth, playing the wise matchmaker. Tora and his Tokyo relatives in fact seem to serve as a frame for the lovely Shiomi’s tender romance with a skinny, tempestuous struggling artist (rock star Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, in a non-singing role). Even so, Atsumi, never more Chaplinesque, has some wonderful moments.

The Tora-sans are suffused with Yamada’s love for the common man and for Japan, especially its unspoiled countryside and off-the-beaten-track small towns. He is an unabashed sentimentalist, yet he never loses touch with reality, accepting always the inevitability of loss and change, as did his mentor, Yasujiro Ozu. Yamada celebrates human nature in this film--as he has done in all his work.

“Tora-san’s Bluebird Fantasy” (Times-rated Family) will be shown in the 250-seat Cinema 1 of the Little Tokyo, on the third floor of the Mall at Little Tokyo Square, 333 S. Alameda St.; (213) 687-7077. “The Castle of Sand,” Yoshitaro Nomura’s classic 1975 Ross Macdonald-like detective mystery, will open the 150-seat Cinema 2.

‘TORA-SAN’S BLUEBIRD FANTASY’ A Shochiku presentation. Executive producer Kiyoshi Shimazu. Planned by Shunichi Kobayashi. Director Yoji Yamada. Screenplay Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama. Camera Tetsuo Takaba. Music Naozumi Yamamoto. Art director Mitsuo Dekawa. With Kiyoshi Atsumi, Chieko Baisho, Etsuko Shiomi, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, Masami Shimoho, Chieko Misaki, Gin Maeda, Chishu Ryu, Hisao Dazai. In Japanese, with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes.

Times-rated: Family.