Tora-san Makes Excuses (45)

In episode 45 of Yoji Yamada's Tora-san series the story once again focuses on the relationship between Tora's (Kiyoshi Atsumi) nephew Mitsuo (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and his crush Izumi (Kumiko Goto) in Tora-san Makes Excuses (1992). There's another pre-credits dream sequence where Tora dreams he is skilled scholar who is also a formidable fighter who fights off some hooligans hired to follow Izumi who has run off with Mituso rather than face an arranged marriage. Tora finds himself in the town of Aburatsu, Miyazaki in Kyushu where he meets a pretty barber, Choko (Jun Fubuki) and Izumi later at a castle where he sprains his ankle. Mitsuo rushes down to see Tora and they stay a few nights with Choko and her younger brother seeing a festival before returning back to Tokyo. Izumi moves back to Nagoya to look after her mother who is undergoing surgery and needs her-so it is the end of the relationship between Mitsuo and Izumi for the time being. The end is Mitsuo reading his New Year's postcard to Izumi rather than the family reading Tora's postcard for a change.