Movielogr

Rating: 7.5 stars

Tags

Japan aging cats professor Beer post-war student birthday

All movies seen on 01/06/2015

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Madadayo (1993)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Drama

Overview

Based on the life of Hyakken Uchida, a Japanese author and academic. The film opens with Uchida resigning his job as a German professor at the onset of WWII. The story is told mostly in vignettes as he is cared for by former students in his old age.

Length 134 minutes

Actors

Tatsuo Matsumura | Kyôko Kagawa | Hisashi Igawa | George Tokoro | Masayuki Yui | Akira Terao | Takeshi Kusaka | Asei Kobayashi | Hidetaka Yoshioka | Yoshitaka Zushi | Mitsuru Hirata | Noriko Honma | Shigeo Katô | Kôjirô Kusanagi | Utaroku Miyakoya | Kimihiro Reizei | Kinzoh Sakura | Mie Suzuki | Tetsuo Yamashita | Takao Zushi | Nobuto Okamoto | Tetsu Watanabe | Norio Matsui | Akihiko Sugizaki | Shû Nakajima | Ryûjirô Oki | Tetsuya Ito | Masuo Amada | Minoru Hirano | Kazuhiko Kasai | Eiji Bandô | Masahiko Tanimura | Tomoko Ôtakara | Toshihiko Nakano

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Seventh film for my Kurosawa week. Interesting that AK’s last movie could be seen as an allegory for his own life. Here a respected professor retires during WW2 (Kurosawa’s final callback) then lives his remaining years revered by his former students. The title “Madadayo” loosely translated as “Not Yet” is symbolic phrase shared by professor and students to express that their time is not yet over.

The move is sweet as AK falls comfortably back into his Capra style. Everything is wonderful and even the American MPs that show up to beer hall to disrupt a celebration in the professor’s honor just smile and walk away. The only conflict is when the professor’s cat disappears and he retreats into grave depression. This passage is only to further illustrate how much those around him will do anything to help their beloved professor.

The movie has more impact as it correlates with the life of Kurosawa ending on a final note of happiness. Very fitting final film for an amazing and respected career of one the greatest filmmakers of all time.

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