The late Akira Kurosawa's shamelessly sentimental last film is a fond and fitting farewell.
Madadayo(まあだだよ)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 1993
2h 14m
Director Akira Kurosawa
Starring Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyōko Kagawa, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Akira Kurosawa’s final film, a tale of a German professor who resigned prior to World War II after 30 years of teaching. The film centers around the relationship he has with generations of students whom he taught, and his isolating life as a writer in postwar Japan.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Unabashedly personal and uncool...but between you and me, dear reader, I love it to death.
San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham
This warm, celebratory and very public film is punctuated by sudden and luminous private visualizations.
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
It's not one of Kurosawa's great films.... But it is, within its own proportions, nearly perfect.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Wordy, wearying drama.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Desmond Ryan
A profound and deeply moving exploration of facing death with dignity.
San Francisco Examiner by G. Allen Johnson
It is an important work, and a very good one.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Has the expressionistic simplicity of Kurosawa's other late films.
Kurosawa's farewell film is full of sentiment, tears, toasts and songs.
Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan
Little spectacle but much bittersweet sensitivity.
Users who liked this film also liked
The Blue Angel
(Der blaue Engel)
A professor becomes obsessed with a cabaret dancer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 1930
- Director Josef von Sternberg
- Cast Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers
- Genre Drama, Music
- Available on Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Kanopy, JustWatchTV
A Fistful of Dollars
(Per un pugno di dollari)
A gunfighter with no name drifts into a small town and plays both sides as two corrupt families fight each other.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, Spain, West Germany • 1964
- Director Sergio Leone
- Cast Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, Joseph Egger
- Genre Western
- Available on MGM Plus, fuboTV, TCM, AMC+, AMC+ Amazon Channel, MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , Epix Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Plex
Mon Oncle
(Mon oncle)
Mr Hulot takes a precious, playful ... and purely premeditated look at modern times...
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1958
- Director Jacques Tati
- Cast Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Lucien Frégis, Betty Schneider, Jean-François Martial
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video
Rashomon
(羅生門)
A singular crime from four different perspectives.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1950
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijirô Ueda
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Sonatine
A disenchanted Yakuza member is sent to Okinawa by his boss to quell a gang war, but realizes he has been set up.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1993
- Director Takeshi Kitano
- Cast Takeshi Kitano, Aya Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe, Masanobu Katsumura, Susumu Terajima, Ren Osugi
- Genre Action, Crime, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV
Ran
(乱)
The Greatest Shakespeare Film
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, France • 1985
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryû, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki
- Genre Action, Drama, History
- Available on Kanopy
Kagemusha
(影武者)
A petty thief must impersonate a powerful warlord in order to lead his troops to battle.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United States • 1980
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Jinpachi Nezu, Takashi Shimura, Kenichi Hagiwara
- Genre Action, Drama, History, War
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
High and Low
(天国と地獄)
A wealthy executive becomes the victim of an extortion plot after his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1963
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjirō Ishiyama
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video
The Twilight Samurai
(たそがれ清兵衛)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2002
- Director Yoji Yamada
- Cast Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Nenji Kobayashi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Kanako Fukaura, Hiroshi Kanbe
- Genre Drama, Romance, History
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Dreams
(夢)
A collection of magical tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United States • 1990
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Toshie Negishi, Mieko Harada, Mitsunori Isaki, Toshihiko Nakano
- Genre Drama, Fantasy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
A Brighter Summer Day
(牯嶺街少年殺人事件)
A colorful coming of age odyssey set against the backdrop of 1960s Taiwan.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan • 1991
- Director Edward Yang
- Cast Chang Chen, Lisa Yang, Elaine Jin, Chen Shiang-Chyi
- Genre Crime, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Scandal
(醜聞)
A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous story about a painter and a famous singer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1950
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Yôko Katsuragi, Noriko Sengoku, Eitarō Ozawa, Takashi Shimura
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
(虎の尾を踏む男達)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1952
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Denjirō Ōkōchi, Susumu Fujita, Kenichi Enomoto, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Akitake Kôno
- Genre Drama, Comedy, History, Thriller
- Available on Fandor Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, Plex, Plex Channel
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons
(子連れ狼 冥府魔道)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1973
- Director Kenji Misumi
- Cast Tomisaburō Wakayama, Michiyo Yasuda, Akihiro Tomikawa, Shingo Yamashiro, Tomomi Satô, Akira Yamanouchi
- Genre Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Katie Tippel
(Keetje Tippel)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Netherlands • 1975
- Director Paul Verhoeven
- Cast Monique van de Ven, Rutger Hauer, Andrea Domburg, Hannah de Leeuwe, Jan Blaaser, Eddie Brugman
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on Plex, Plex Channel
The Munekata Sisters
(宗方姉妹)
A young woman tries to reunite her sister, now stuck in an unhappy marriage, with a former lover.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1950
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Sanae Takasugi, Chishū Ryū, Sō Yamamura
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel