Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ, It's Tough Being a Man) is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as Torajirō Kuruma, whose nickname is Tora-san (寅さん), a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love.

[1] Spanning 48 installments released between 1969 and 1995,[2] all of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo films except episodes 3 (Azuma Morisaki) and 4 (Shun'ichi Kobayashi [jp]) were directed by Yōji Yamada, who also wrote (or co-wrote) all the screenplays.

[4] The film series had presumed to have ended with Atsumi's declining health and death from lung cancer at age 68, without Tora-san ever settling down and finding domestic happiness.

Director Yamada had decided at the time not to continue the series after Atsumi's death, but reworked a Tora-san script stuck in development as Niji wo Tsukamu Otoko starring Nishida Toshiyuki as a traveling cinema operator.

Torajirō Kuruma (Tora-san) is a traveling salesman whose sole possessions are the contents of a small suitcase, the clothes on his back and some pocket money.

The film often begins with Tora-san dreaming of doing grand deeds, anxious to be worthy of his family, usually resulting in disappointment and subsequent awakening.

This denouement made the audience angry and a film version of Otoko wa Tsurai yo followed.

Initially, Shochiku, the distributing agency, was not enthusiastic about the film's prospects but Yōji Yamada's persuasiveness ultimately prevailed.