Let's be realistic.

Just perfect...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a beautiful movie. It is slow and deep rather than fast and shallow. It explores the relationships between a teacher and his students as he moves on from teaching to writing to retirement and they move into adulthood and parenthood. During this time they face the extreme challenges of World War II and its aftermath. But, at its core, the movie is not about the war. It is about the stability he presents to his students. He seems to behave in the same easy-going, confident manner, no matter how dire the circumstances. It is also about the way rolls eventually change: the students at first are nurtured by the teacher, but over time they begin to care about and then care for him. Most of us, or at least the lucky among us, have had good natured teachers that always seem to be able to get the best of their students. This is such a teacher. The scene depicting his 'foolproof' method for handling burglars is alone reason enough to watch the film. I recommend this movie and, if you like it, I recommend 'Ikiru' and the Japanese version of 'Shall We Dance'.

In a pre-WWII Tokyo, the professor of German Hyakken Uchida (Tatsuo Matsumura) decides to retire after thirty years of professorship, and dedicate to the career of writer. His students, some of them from different generations, love him and keep a close touch with the professor and his wife (Kyôko Kagawa) along his life. In 1943, the house of the professor is bombed, he loses all his possessions and moves to a simple gardener cottage. After the war, his former students build a new small house with a lake around, and every year along seventeen years, in the professor's birthday, they have a reunion with a funny ceremony, based on children's hide and seek and referring if the professor is ready to die. They ask the professor: "-Mahda-kai?" ("Are you ready?"), and the professor responds "-Madadayo!" ("Not yet?") and drinks a large glass of beer."Madadayo" is the last direction of Master Akira Kurosawa, and is a sensitive low-paced worship of knowledge, friendship and life. I found this movie very beautiful, and I would like to highlight some points. First of all, the character of the professor Hyakken Uchida, capable of be adored by his students of different generations, very connected to a cat, living with his beloved wife but without kids. There is no explanation, but it seems quite contradictory a man of such profile not having son or daughter. Another interesting point is the changing of behavior of Japanese society with women (and family) along time. In the sixty-first anniversary of the professor (First Madadayo), there are only men in the meeting room, in spite of war finished a few years ago. Seventeen years later, the room is crowded of men, women and children. The conclusion of the story, showing that life goes on, is awesome! Last but not the least, the music score is magnificent. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Madadayo"

Madadayo is about a Japanese professor of German who has an incredibly fertile imagination and can tell humorous stories about almost anything. His students' love for him is what drives the movie, from the beginning, which was reminiscent of the end of Dead Poet's Society and had me veclempt before I knew what hit me, to when they scour the war ravaged city looking for the Professor's cat. The professor's stories are funny, but maybe something is lost in the translation. A lot of the time he seemed to be just whining about the war and how bad off he is which took away from my enjoyment of the movie. Perhaps in Japanese the war references are pulled off more subtly, for the most part the movie does a good job of not shoving the viewer's face in it (which makes you care about it all the more) but sometimes I found myself asking why the students liked the guy so much. Then again perhaps it's a good thing that my opinions on the character changed so much. Overall it goes as a collection of stories about the professor and the simplicity of the themes creates a satisfying emotional impact. I rated this one an 8/10.

I've watched this movie more often then any other Kurosawa movie. I think most of his movies I've watched only once were movies whose impact on me will last a lifetime, thats why I don't need to watch 'Stray Dog' or 'Red Beard' too often, though they are my favorite. But this one is a movie I can watch on the evening, an easy-watchable and yet very touching and intensive movie, with moments to laugh and touching moments too. I realy like this movie for its sympathic characters - though it plays partly in fascism war-torn Japan. Maybe its the point of why I like these character especially - it shows that despite their fascistic affiliation the characters didn't have to be evil - or at least not all.It has also a few good jokes which you can only understand when you understand japanese - the main character is a distinguished author and german-teacher. He delivers a brilliant character-study.Recommendable for everybody interested in japanese culture, especially postwar - and all Kurosawa-fans of course.