“Family melodrama….most often records the protagonist's inability to act in a way that would shape events and influence the emotional environment, let alone to change the suffocating environment... Melodrama gives them a negative identity through suffering, and progressive self-immolation and disillusionment generally results in resignation; they emerge as inferior human beings because they have become wise and compliant to the ways of the world. (Elsaesser, 78-79) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay This quote from Tales of Sound and Fury by Elsaesser encapsulates the nature of It's Tough to Be a Man as a family melodrama, showcasing the likable and unlikable Torajiro, a boorish member of the yakuza who returns to his hometown, Shibamata, and unintentionally causes problems for his loved ones. Tora's narrative is full of frustration. The audience feels bad for him for his history of abuse by his father, but becomes frustrated when he doesn't understand the implications of his boorish behavior in particular social settings. When clashing with Hiroshi, a worker in love with Sakura, Tora is rather silent and unaware of Hiroshi's question of whether or not Tora has ever been in love with a woman he cannot have due to his background (specifically, his lack of university education). In the first instance of this twice-posed question, Hiroshi foreshadows what the viewer might glimpse in Tora's then-blossoming feelings for Fuyuko. He's not explicitly inaccessible yet, but later in the film, when Tora visits Fuyuko on a fishing trip together, he gets a taste of his own medicine when a man, in business clothes, turns out to be Fuyuko's (educated) future husband . Thus, the audience sees the tragic yet ironic parallel that Elsaesser mentions at the beginning of his essay on page 70, and Tora once again returns to his life as a wanderer, albeit in a more tragic setting, seen crying in a restaurant after firing Noboru in the final minutes of the film.