Madadayo

Madadayo follows Hyakken Uchida, a German-language professor and writer in Japan around the time of the Second World War. He leaves his teaching post to devote himself to writing, and when his home is destroyed in the wartime bombing, he and his wife move into a small hut. His former students remain devoted to him through the years, supporting the couple and gathering each year for his birthday. At these parties they ask whether he is ready to move on to the next world, and he answers that he is not yet.

Akira Kurosawa directed the film, his twenty-third in chronological order, following Rhapsody in August (1991), and wrote the screenplay with Ishirō Honda. Tatsuo Matsumura plays Uchida, with Kyōko Kagawa as his wife and Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro, Masayuki Yui and Akira Terao among the students. The film runs 134 minutes.

Madadayo was made for about 8 million USD and took roughly 2 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 from around 6,700 votes, and on TMDB 7.4 from about 141. A critics' rating of 7.1 from 16 reviews sits close to those audience figures, indicating a generally favourable but not overwhelming response across all three groups.