It's Tough Being a Film Studio: Consumption, Tora-san, and Bubble Economy Productions

It’s Tough Being a Film Studio: Consumption, Tora-san, and Bubble Economy Productions
A Lecture by Dr. Patrick Terry
Portland State University

Otoko wa Tsurai yo or the Tora-san series is considered the longest running live action film series in the world with fifty feature entries. Starting as a television show in the late 60s, Kuruma Torajiro quickly became a central figure of Shochiku’s productions for nearly thirty years. With bi-annual releases around the New Year holiday and late summer festivals Tora-san serves as a consistent media property tied to family gatherings and generational change.

Using a studio and media industries analysis of the latter portion of films produced in the bubble era (from the mid-1980s until the series end) provides a through-line for this talk that will explore changing dynamics of marketing and production patterns throughout the Bubble Era. The Tora-san films are also a benchmark of classic studio filmmaking in a time defined by increased co-productions, boutique studios, and a re-shuffling of major studio control during one of the most dynamic and gaudy periods of personal consumption and desire in the postwar Japan.

5:30 PM | May 22, 2025
Smith Memorial Student Union
Room 327/8/9
Free and Open to the Public
Please use the entrance on SW Broadway

For more information on CJS and our upcoming events, please visit: https://www.pdx.edu/japanese-studies/