Madadayo

Released 1993
Stars Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyoko Kagawa, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Made in 1993 when he was 83, "Madadayo" was the last film by the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest of all filmmakers, who died in 1998. And yet the very title of the film argued against death; "Madadayo" means "not yet!" That is the ritual cry which the film's old professor shouts out at the end of every one of his birthday parties, and it means that although death will come and may be near, life still goes on.

This is the kind of film we would all like to make, if we were very old and very serene. There were times when I felt uncannily as if Kurosawa were filming his own graceful decline into the night. It tells the story of the last two decades in the life of Hyakken Uchida, a writer and teacher who retires in the war years of the early 1940s. He was the kind of teacher who could inspire great respect and affection from his students, who venerate him and, as a group, help support him in his old age.

Summary by Roger Ebert

There are lot of problems with this movie like the lack of character development and the fact that we're not given any glimpse into why the Professor's former students love him so much, but there are also things to admire. I liked the gradual, subtle Westernization of Japan and the spirit of the film, but it was the ending that got me. It was similar to the ending of Map of the Human Heart, and it's devastating. On what is probably the old man's last night, he dreams of being 8 again and playing hide-and-seek. Each time the other boys ask if he's ready, he calls out, "Madadayo." It's a beautiful ending that hit me hard. I'm only 36 right now, but I feel like yelling "Madadayo" every day. I can't even imagine what it will be like when I'm 77, God willing. --Bill Alward, January 25, 2003