AllMovie

The Tsuri series -- often coupled with the wildly popular Tora-san series -- centers on Hama-chan (Toshiyuki Nishida), a construction company salesman who puts his family and his passion -- fishing -- before his job, a virtual heresy in a nation where grindingly long days at the office is the norm. Instead of berating his errant employee, his boss -- affectionately called Su-chan (Rentaro Mikuni) -- considers Hama-chan a guru of laid back living. In this twelfth installment -- directed by Katsuhide Motoki -- Hama-chan and Su-chan concern themselves with their co-worker Takano (played by former governor of Tokyo Yukio Aoshima), a managing director who suddenly announces that he is going to retire and move to his boyhood home in Yamaguchi prefecture to do nothing but fish. Down in Yamaguchi, Takano -- accompanied by his beautiful niece Kozue (played by former teen idol and pin-up girl Rie Miyazawa) -- learns that his ancestral home is a bit more on the rustic side than he would like. Green with envy, Su-chan and Hama-chan soon visit their pal who finds himself laid up in a hospital with a kidney infection. Unfortunately, the doctor's news is not good news.