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Mood:
- ContemplativeTouchingEmotionalGloomy
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Plot:
- Family RelationsGolden YearsSamuraiWriter's LifePsychologicalTeachers and StudentsCurses Spells and RitualsReunion more...
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Genres:
- DramaForeign
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Time/Period:
- World War 2
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Place:
- JapanTokyo
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Praise:
- Critically Acclaimed
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Attitudes:
- SeriousRealisticSlow
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Madadayo, 1993
Japanese, English
Japan
Profile of Madadayo
Madadayo can be described as contemplative, touching, and emotional. The plot revolves around family relations, a reunion, and samurai. The main genres are drama and foreign. In approach, Madadayo is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. It is located in Tokyo. Madadayo takes place during World War 2. The movie has received attention for being critically acclaimed.
Summary of Madadayo
MADADAYO, Akira Kurosawa's 30th and final film, follows the life of an aging Japanese professor whose retirement coincides with the final years of World War II. Beloved by his former students, the professor often received them as guests in his home. That is, until his home is destroyed by an air raid. The students pool their resources and buy the professor and his wife a new house. In their new home, the couple gains a third member of the family, a stray cat named Nora, which the professor dotes on like a child. At one point, when Nora gets lost, a group of students dutifully search the city for the pet on behalf of their despondent professor. As the years go by, the students continue to hold annual birthday parties for their mentor. During these celebrations, they toast him with the question "Mahda-kai?" (meaning "Are you ready?" to go on to the next world), to which he humorously responds, "Madadayo," meaning "No, not yet." Based on the life of author and professor Hyakken Uchida, Kurosawa's last film is also somewhat autobiographical, echoing the final years of the revered filmmaker's own life. Tatsuo Matsumura plays the feisty yet sensitive professor with great gusto, while Kyôko Kagawa appears as his soft-spoken wife; other Kurosawa acting alumni play his enthusiastic and adoring students. A thoroughly sentimental film, MADADAYO is a touching meditation on life and its inevitable end.
Details
| Language: | Japanese, English |
| Country: | Japan |
| Release date: | 20 March 1998 |
| Runtime: | 134 min |
Cast and Crew
as Professor Hyakken Uchida
as Professor's Wife
Photos
Critics Reviews
TV Guide
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- by: Ken Fox
Philadelphia Inquirer
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- by: Desmond Ryan
