Madadayo (1993) on Netflix
Hyakken Uchida retires from teaching German in Tokyo. His former students gather each year for a banquet, asking whether he is ready to die; he always answers, not yet.
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Plot summary
For years Hyakken Uchida has taught German in Tokyo, and he announces his retirement to his students in tears. In 1943 he and his wife move into a spacious house, where two former pupils arrive to stage a burglary and instead find notes he has left telling them how to get inside. He hosts a dinner for his students and is embarrassed that wartime shortages leave him and his wife able to serve only venison and horsemeat. Bombing raids destroy the house, and the couple move into a cramped shack without plumbing. After the war his former students hold a banquet in his honor, asking him again and again whether he is ready to die; his reply gives the evening its name.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Madadayo (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Several of the film's vignettes — 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. The film also gave Kurosawa a chance to comment on the American occupation of Japan.
