Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro haibisukasu no hana

It really focuses in on Tora and knows when to cut away and utilise the supporting cast. The visuals are unique, thanks both to the setting and some inventive sequences (like that airplane montage, which I'm still not really sure what that was about... the dreamy aquarium sequence was great, though).

Speaking of dreams, I loved them as a theme here throughout the whole film (not just the opening dream sequence). Tora comes close to living what he thought his dream life was, but he has to grapple with whether it's actually satisfying enough, or even if it's what he really wanted in the first place. And this provides a relatively fresh side of the character.

There's some funny stuff of course- I like what might be a running gag of some unseen towns-person scolding her children to not do something "unless they want to end up like Tora", and Octopus' knack for imploding awkward situations is always funny.

Music is usually good in this series, but this instalment really went an extra steps with a fantastic score throughout that really helped amplify the emotions in some of the film's more serious scenes.

It might not be an ideal entry point for the series, given that Tora and Lily's bond is explored in a prior entry or two (or three? I lost count a bit), but otherwise, this has almost everything you'd want from a Tora-san film, and paces itself well over a 103-minute runtime that I reckon it by and large earns.

Really good stuff, and a strong milestone to mark the halfway point of the series.