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is a 1993 Japanese
comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...
film. It is the thirty-first and final film to be completed by
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
before his death. It was screened out of competition at the
1993 Cannes Film Festival The 46th Cannes Film Festival took place from 13 to 24 May 1993. French filmmaker Louis Malle served as jury president for the main competition. French actress Jeanne Moreau hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The ''Palme d'Or'' was join ...
. The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film 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 (1889–1971). While playfully teaching a class as a
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
in the period immediately before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Uchida tearfully announces his retirement to his crestfallen students. In 1943, he moves into a spacious house but his wife is concerned about the safety of the neighborhood. Two students arrive to pretend to burglarize the home, but instead find a series of directions written by Uchida on how to break in to the house. He hosts a dinner for several of his students, but as a result of wartime shortages he is embarrassed that he and his wife can only serve venison and horse meat. Their house burns down as a result of
U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
bombing raids, and Uchida and his wife are forced to live in a small shack with no indoor toilet with their few remaining possessions. After the end of the war, his former students get together to host a banquet to honor him. Asked several times whether he is ready to die, he replies repeatedly, “Not yet", so naturally the banquet is named “the Not Yet Banquet.” At the end of the raucous celebration, two American military policemen arrive but smile after they see that everyone is enjoying themselves. With the help of his students, he builds a new house for himself and his wife with a pond that has a small island in the middle. A stray alley cat arrives and he eventually adopts the cat, aptly naming it Nora (from 'Nora neko', meaning 'alley cat' in Japanese). The lot across from the couple is purchased by a developer who believes their house will be in the way and insists on purchasing it. Uchida refuses, and realizes that developing the lot will tower over his house. His students get together, purchase the lot, and return it to the seller who needed the money but also needed the lot. The seller promises not to disturb Uchida's view. Nora disappears during a storm, which causes Uchiro to become heartbroken and sink into a deep depression. He conducts numerous searches, enlisting his students, local schools, and the townspeople, but aside several false leads, Nora is never seen again. Soon after, another cat appears. He names it Kurz (German for 'short') and with the new cat, his depression lifts. His former students hold the seventeenth Not Yet Banquet. No longer an all-men's affair, children of his students present him with flowers, and the students' grandchildren present him with a large cake. After receiving the cake and giving his remarks, he collapses from arrhythmia. After being taken home to rest, he falls asleep and dreams of playing
hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chosen playe ...
as a child. The other children keep asking if he's ready while he is looking for a place to hide and he replies, "not yet". He finally finds a place to hide, and in so doing, looks out toward a golden sun. 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 Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...
that he had only been able to explore indirectly in his earlier works.


Cast

* Tatsuo Matsumura – Professor Hyakken Uchida * Kyōko Kagawa – 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 *'' Shimoochiai Yakitori Movie'' ( ...
– Amaki * Masayuki Yui – Kiriyama * Akira Terao – Sawamura * Takeshi Kusaka – Dr. Kobayashi * Asei Kobayashi – Rev. Kameyama *
Hidetaka Yoshioka is a Japanese actor known for his performance in several movies as a child and the TV drama ''Dr. Kotō Shinryōjo, Dr. Coto's Clinic''. He played the part of Tora-san's nephew in the ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' film series, and he appeared in Akira ...
– Takayama's son * Yoshitaka Zushi – Neighbor * Mitsuru Hirata – Tada * Nobuto Okamoto – Ōta * Tetsu Watanabe * Norio Matsui * Noriko Honma – Old lady holding a cat


Release

''Madadayo'' was distributed theatrically in Japan by
Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...
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 channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
in September 1999. It was reissued theatrically on September 1, 2000. English-subtitled
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s 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". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...
in the U.S., Madman in Australia, Yume Pictures in the UK, and Mei Ah in Hong Kong. A
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
edition, without English subtitles, is available in Japan as part of a box set with ''
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura, it follows various people who describe how a ...
'', '' Ran'', and '' The Quiet Duel''.


Reception


Critical response

''Madadayo'' has an approval rating of 87% on
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, based on 15 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10.
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Awards and nominations

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''. For his performance in the film,
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 *'' Shimoochiai Yakitori Movie'' ( ...
received the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor.


See also

*
Cinema of Japan The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the Film industry#Statistics, fourth largest by number of feature films p ...
*
List of submissions to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English language, Englis ...
* List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film


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. ...
{{Japanese submissions for the Academy Award 1993 films 1993 comedy-drama films 1990s Japanese films 1990s Japanese-language films Films about birthdays Films about cats Films about educators Films about teacher–student relationships Films directed by Akira Kurosawa Films scored by Shin'ichirō Ikebe Films set in 1943 Films set in 1949 Films set in 1950 Films set in 1966 Films set in Tokyo Films with screenplays by Akira Kurosawa Japanese comedy-drama films Japanese-language comedy-drama films