is a 1993 Japanese

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film. It is the thirtieth and final film to be completed by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

. It was screened out of competition at the

1993 Cannes Film Festival The 46th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 1993. The Palme d'Or went to '' Farewell My Concubine'' by Chen Kaige and '' The Piano'' by Jane Campion. The festival opened with ''My Favorite Season'', directed by André Téchiné and c ...

. The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

66th Academy Awards The 66th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1993 and took place on March 21, 1994, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p. ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot

The film is based on the life of Japanese academic and author

Hyakken Uchida was a Japanese author and academic. Biography Uchida was born in Okayama, Okayama, Okayama to a family of sake brewers whose business later went bankrupt. His real name is Eizo Uchida (内田榮造 ''Uchida Eizō''). He became a pupil of N ...

(1889–1971). It opens with him resigning as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, in the period immediately before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The plot is centered on his relationship with his former students, who care for him in his old age. Many of the movie's vignettes, like the search for a missing cat and the time Uchida spent in a one-room hut after his home was destroyed in a bombing raid, come from Uchida's own writings, but the movie also gives Kurosawa the chance to comment on aspects of modern Japanese history like the

American occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United Stat ...

that he had only been able to explore indirectly in his earlier works.

Cast

* Tatsuo Matsumura – Professor Hyakken Uchida *

Kyōko Kagawa is a Japanese actress. During her 70 years spanning career, she has worked with directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse, appearing in films such as '' Tokyo Story'', ''Sansho the Bailiff'', ''The Bad Sleep ...

– Professor's Wife * Hisashi Igawa – Takayama *

George Tokoro , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese comedian, TV personality, singer-songwriter, and essayist. Born in Tokorozawa, Saitama, he attended Takushoku University's Commercial Science class. Works Film *'' Madadayo'' (1993) - Amaki *''P ...

– Amaki * Masayuki Yui – Kiriyama *

Akira Terao is a Japanese musician, singer and movie actor. As of 2012, he is the only male actor to have received both the Japan Record Award and the Japan Academy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Early life Terao was bor ...

– Sawamura *

Takeshi Kusaka was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Toshima, Tokyo. He was the founder of the Shiki Theatre Company. He remarried with actress Fujiko Kimura in 2010. Roles Live action films *''Assassination'' (1964) ( Narahara Shigeru) *'' Honoo to onna ...

– Dr. Kobayashi * Asei Kobayashi – Rev. Kameyama *

Hidetaka Yoshioka is a Japanese actor known for his performance in several movies as a child and lately the award-winning TV drama Dr. Coto's Clinic. He notably played the part of Tora-san's little nephew in the "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" film series, and he appeared ...

– Takayama's son * Yoshitaka Zushi – Neighbor *

Mitsuru Hirata is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best actor at the 7th Hochi Film Award and the award for best supporting actor at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival for '' Fall Guy''. Filmography Films *'' Fall Guy'' (1982), Yasu *''Theater of Life'' ( ...

– Tada * Nobuto Okamoto – Ōta *

Tetsu Watanabe is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in more than 90 films since 1989. Selected filmography Film Television References External links Agency profile * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Tetsu 1950 births Living people People from Tokoname ...

* Norio Matsui *

Noriko Honma Noriko Honma (本間文子 ''Honma Noriko'') (29 November 1911 – 12 April 2009) was a Japanese actress whose film work occurred primarily during the 1950s. She was born in Hokkaido. She worked in many of Akira Kurosawa's films, first appearin ...

– Old lady holding a cat

Release

''Madadayo'' was distributed theatrically in Japan by

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

on 17 April 1993. The film was exhibited at various American film festivals beginning on March 20, 1998. It did not initially receive a wide theatrical release and was released directly to television by WinStar Cinema and first broadcast on

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

in September 1999. It was reissued theatrically on September 1, 2000. English-subtitled DVDs have been released by Winstar and the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

in the U.S.,

Madman Pierfrancesco Botrugno (born 25 July 1988), better known by the stage name Madman sometimes stylized as MadMan is an Italian rapper. Biography Early years, ''Escape from Heart'' Madman entered the world of hip hop by participating in the 2 ...

in Australia, Yume Pictures in the UK, and Mei Ah in Hong Kong. A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

edition, without English subtitles, is available in Japan as part of a box set with ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/ crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as v ...

'', '' Ran'', and ''

The Quiet Duel is a 1949 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Plot The film centers on Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young, idealistic doctor who, during his service as an army physician during World War II, contracted syphilis from the blood of a patient when he ...

''.

Reception

In Japan, the film won the awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Lighting at the

Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

. All these awards were given to their respective crews for their work on both ''Madadayo'' and '' Rainbow Bridge''. ''Madadayo'' received generally positive reviews from critics, maintaining an 87% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * * *
Madadayo
' at the

Japanese Movie Database The , more commonly known as simply JMDb, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database but lists only those films initially released in Japan. Y. ...

{{Akira Kurosawa 1993 films 1993 comedy-drama films Japanese comedy-drama films 1990s Japanese-language films Films about cats Films about educators Films about teacher–student relationships Films set in the 1940s Films set in 1943 Films set in 1949 Films set in the 1950s Films set in 1950 Films set in the 1960s Films set in 1966 Films set in Tokyo Films directed by Akira Kurosawa Films with screenplays by Akira Kurosawa 1990s Japanese films