#madadayo

[pretzelogic1]

My top ten and bottom ten new watches of the month.

[dromerace]

Madadayo, Akira Kurosawa, 1993.

[byneddiedingo]

Tatsuo Matsumura in Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa, 1993) Cast: Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyoko Kagawa, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro, Masayuki Yui, Akira Terao, Takeshi Kusaka, Asei Kobayashi, Mitsuru Hirata, Takao Zushi, Nobuto Okamoto. Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda. Cinematography: Takao Saito, Shoji Ueda. Art direction: Yoshiro Muraki. Film editing: Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda. Music: Shinichiro Ikebe.  Akira Kurosawa's Madadayo isn't quite the autumnal masterpiece we want a great director's final film to be, but it has a suitably valedictory tone. It's a portrait of a kind of Japanese Mr. Chips, a teacher so beloved that his students reunite every year to celebrate his birthday with lots of singing and drinking. The film is based on the life of Hyakken Uchida, an actual professor of German at Hosei University in Tokyo. We never really see what made Uchida (Tatsuo Matsumura) so beloved by his students: The film opens with his retirement from teaching so he can devote more time to writing, but we can infer from the genial, eccentrically bookish manner that peeps through his professorial sternness that he has always been a favorite of his students, often drinking with them after hours. The narrative (such as it is -- Kurosawa's screenplay, based on the real Uchida's essays, has no real plot or dramatic arc) picks up on his birthday in 1943, when his former students help him and his wife (Kyoko Kagawa) move into a new house. When the house is destroyed by fire from the American bombing, they move into a tiny shed that was an outbuilding on a wealthy man's estate and live there until after the war, when his students build a new house for him. We see him celebrate his 60th birthday with his students at a banquet that grows so noisy some GIs from the occupying forces arrive in a Jeep to check it out but leave with smiles on their faces. He's so beloved that when a rich man proposes to build a three-story house across the street from him, thereby casting Uchida's house and garden in shadow, the man selling the land reneges on the deal and then sells it to a group of the ex-students. The greatest crisis in his life is not the war but the loss of a beloved cat, who wanders off one day, causing him so much grief that his wife calls in the students to help find it. Eventually, a new cat takes up with Uchida and life goes on. At the film's end, Uchida collapses from a heart arrhythmia at the banquet celebrating his 77th birthday, but even then he calls out the phrase "Mada dayo!" ("Not yet!"), which has become his ritual defiance of death at his birthday celebrations. Matsumura's performance sustains the film, which at 2 hours and 14 minutes is overlong and more a film for Kurosawa completists than for general audiences. The birthday celebrations become wearyingly exuberant, and the search for the lost cat seems to go on forever, but the film is lightened by Kurosawa's sense of humor and his affection for the characters. It also touches on the changes in Japanese society over the years: The classroom scene at the beginning has a militaristic formality, and the drinking bouts of the early birthday celebrations are all-male affairs. But by the end, not only has Uchida's ever-dutiful wife joined in the celebration, but his students' wives, children, and grandchildren are present, too.

[fridaypacific]

Madadayo on Letterboxd

[swankpalanquin]

tagged by @duelsong for favorites of 2023! thank you!! (only chose new things, not stuff i reread/rewatched/etc)

books: Metamorphoses - Ovid (for when i felt like i was in a cocoon) The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire - Wayne Koestenbaum (felt very seen reading this) A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle (wanted to eat fancy cheese and bread all day) Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (read it in like one day; very enthralling) Queen's Thief series - Megan Whalen Turner (life changing) various Feluda stories - Satyajit Ray (good mystery adventures) various biographies about Cicero (my blorbo from the end of the roman republic)

movies: The Funeral (1987) dir. Itami Jūzō (captures funeral vibes perfectly) Madadayo (1993) dir. Kurosawa Akira (sweet with long section of cat focused story) Casablanca (1942) dir. Michael Curtiz (i'd never seen it before this year!) Chungking Express (1994) dir. Wong Kar-wai (actually watched this twice this year) Charulata (1964) dir. Satyajit Ray (watched this twice too and bought it on dvd lol maybe my most favorite of the whole year)

albums: the only full album i think i actually listened to this year was javelin by sufjan stevens and for like the month of november and december i listened to it on repeat on cd (which probably says a lot about my mental health during those months)

bonus TV show: finally watched all of the original series star trek!

anyone who sees this can consider themselves tagged!

[peepingcreek]

How to love myself in a way that I feel free to live and do anything my hearts asks me to, not worrying to stray from my own good graces bITCH

TOP FILMS that I love atm. I made this list bc I often forget my favorite ones. and you may read this list and diagnose me. 2023

I would say my taste in film is: yearing, confessional, horny, political, nostalgic, satirical, rag-tag-found-family and just a fun silly time.

Totoro (1988) Dir. by Hayao Miyazaki | Seen 50 + times

V For Vendetta (2006) Dir. by the Wachowski's | Seen 7 times

Spirited Away (2001) Dir. by Hayao Miyazaki | Seen 20 + times

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) Dir. by Hayao Miyazaki | Seen 10 times

Sherlock (2009-?) Dir. by many | Seen 100+ times

Kill Bill (2003) Dir. by Quentin Tarantino | Seen 15 times

WALL - E (2008) Dir. by Andrew Stanton | Seen 12 times

Call Me By Your Name (2017) Dir. by Luca Guadagnino | Seen 5 times

Juno (2009) dir. diablo cody

American Psycho (2000) Dir. Mary Harron | Seen 8 times

Get Out (2017) Dir. Jordan Peele | Seen 3 times

Batman (2022) Dir. Matt Reeves | Seen 4 times

Priest (1994) Dir. by Antonia Bird | Seen 4 times

Fight Club (1999) Dir. by David Fincher | Seen 10 times

Io Sono Amore (2009) Dir. by Luca Guadagnino | Seen 1 time

Easy A (2010) Dir. by Will Gluck | Seen 5 times

The Sandlot (1993) Dir. by David Mickey Evans | Seen 8 times

Sherlock Holmes (2009) Dir. by Guy Ritchie

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

honorable mentions:

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1972)

Hercules (1997)

Bergman Island (2021) Dir. by Mia Sansen-Love | Seen 1 time

Parasite (2019)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Maurice (1982)

Madadayo

Barbie (2023) Dir. by Greta Gerwig | Seen 3 times

“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

[axlsmposts]

Se fosse ao contrário... a vida imitasse a arte eu seria:

- O monstro de Stevenson, mas também seria o médico;

- O cara estranho no Blue Note

Sendo uma Música seria Jazz

ou Bolero ... o de Ravel..

de Milestone, dos Onze...eu seria o Segredo.

- Mrs Dalloway de Virgínia Woolf;

E se musica, Kind Of Blue

Um Elemento...seria o Vento..

- Hercule Poirot de Agatha Christie;

Se uma Cor...seria BLUE

..se tivesse asas, um Mk V seria sim

De Bogart seria Casablanca... CLARO!

uma Viagem, seria no Expresso Oriente...

- Sherlock Holmes, mas não o de Conan Doyle, e sim o de Jô Soares;

- De Conan Doyle eu seria Watson, meu caro Watson;

-Cavaleiro Templário, mas isso já foi há muito tempo atrás;

- A indecisão de Macbet

e de Ridley Scott eu seria Max Skinner

- A fusão elegante de Grant e Dexter...

- O anônimo de Manhattan

- A irreverência de Allen, teria sim;

- Um pouco de cada musica de Miles Davis

E de Tristão seria Isolda

.. o swing de Goodman

Se fosse cantar..só na Chuva

um Espelho seria Mágico

Se fosse Luar...seria sobre Paradiso.

E um lugar.. teria que ser Londres.

Um encontro seria assim… Round Midnight

- A Relíquia de John Huston

- Se de Kurosawa, estaria em Madadayo;

- De Almodóvar... seria todas.

Seria tipo 4, no eneagrama da transformação (sob análise, mas tenho quase certeza);

Se fosse força, seria água.

Se fosse célula, seria macr��fago, ou célula tronco...

Mas queria ser neurônio;

Mas ainda se fosse um lugar..

Seria no coração de alguém.

[dougielombax]

Okay!

Here it is.

Dougie’s list of 100 films they plan on watching.

(No that’s not my real name)

I put this together over the last month and a half. (Give or take) It’s got all kinds of films and documentaries.

I can’t quite articulate my reasoning but it had to be done

1. Skinamarink

2. Stalker

3. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

4. Knives Out

5. Glass Onion

6. Isle of Dogs

7. The Father

8. The Remains of the Day

9. Shinsukki Blues (I've heard people sav the similarities between it and MGSV are frightening, either Hideo Kojima saw it before working on the game or it’s an eerie coincidence)

10. Travellers and Magicians

11. On the Silver Globe

12. The Shape of Water

13. Dreams (1990)

14. Primer

15. The Other Side of the Wind

16. Charisma (1999)

17. Vanilla Sky (TECH SUPPOOOOOOORT!!!!!)

18. Uncut Gems

19. Friday

20. Eternity and a Day

21. Perfect Blue

22. Solaris

23. The Master (2012)

24. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

25. Four Lions

26. Uncle Boonmee Who can Recall His Past Lives.

27. Autumn Sonata (1978)

28. Stranger than Fiction

29. I'm thinking of Ending Things

30. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

31. A Ghost Story

32. Syndromes and a Century

33. The Green Knight

34. Blazing Saddles

35. Spaceballs

36. Raising Arizona

37. Loving Vincent

38. License to Live (1998)

39. Death at a Funeral (2007)

40. Burn After Reading

41. Eternity's Gate

42. Point Break

43. Murder by Death

44. Uncle Buck

45. Brazil

46. Wedding Crashers

47. Madadayo

48. The Frighteners

49. Upgrade (2018)

50. Thank you for Smoking

51. Nothing But Trouble

52. Dersu Uzala

53. The Personal History of David Copperfield

54. Solaris

55. Phone Booth (2002)

56. The Prestige

57. Coherence

58. Clue (1985)

59. An Inspector Calls (1954)

60. I, Origins

61. Three Identical Strangers

62. Departures (2008)

63. Aftermath: The Remnants of War

64. Speed 2: Cruise Control (yeah I know!)

65. Julieta

66. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

67. The Book of Eli

68. Best in Show

69. Chimes at Midnight (1965)

70. The Lady from Shanghai

71. Big Man Japan

72. Recorder (2019)

73. Bottle Rocket

74. Coming to America

75. Sorry to Bother You

76. We have a Pope (2011)

77. Donnie Darko

78. The Lobster

79. House (1977)

80. UHF

81. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)

82. The Untouchables

83. In the Fade

84: Black Narcissus

85. The Lavender Hill Mob

86. Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

87. Three Thousand Years of Longing

88. Zoolander

89. Into the Abyss

90. Wings of Hope

91. 1408

92. Mystery Men

93. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

94. At Five in the Afternoon.

95. Southland Tales

96. Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.

97. Encounters at the End of the World.

98. All is True

99. The Producers

100. Samsara (2011)

101. Porco Rosso.

102. My Dinner with Andre

103. Michael Clayton

104. Drop Dead Gorgeous

105. The Devil’s Backbone

106. The Son

107. The Bridge (documentary)

108. Big Fish.

109. F For Fake.

110. Ningen Isu

111. Lake Mungo,

112. The Rock.

113. Lady Bird.

114. Demons in Paradise (2017)

115. The Dressmaker (2015)

116. Road to Perdition.

117. Nahapet (1977)

118. Intent to Destroy

119. The Nice Guys

120. Grey Gardens

121. Kusama: Infinity

122. They’ll Love me when I’m Dead

123. Hard Boiled

124. The Black Tower (1987)

125. Shiki-Jitsu (2000)

126. A time to Live, A time to Die. (1985)

127. Millennium Mambo (2001)

128. Beijing Watermelon (1989)

129. Death by Hanging (1968)

130. Monster (2023)

131. Oldboy (2003)

132. The Man from Nowhere (2010)

133. Shattered (1991)

134.

That’s pretty much it.

[falsenote]

Madadayo (1993)

[cinemaronin]

Madadayo (1993)

まあだだよ Madadayo (1993) directed by Akira Kurosawa

[filmografie]

Favorite films watched in April 2021:

Fists in the Pocket (1965), dir. Marco Bellocchio

Daddy Nostalgia (1990), dir. Bertrand Tavernier

Mephisto (1981), dir István Szabó

Une semaine de vacances (1980), dir. Bertrand Tavernier

Man of Marble (1977), dir. Andrzej Wajda

Man of Iron (1981), dir. Andrzej Wajda

A Girl Missing (2019), dir. Koji Fukada

Colonel Redl (1985), dir. István Szabó

Chop Shop (2007), dir. Ramin Bahrani

Madadayo (1993), dir. Akira Kurosawa

The Father (2020), dir. Florian Zeller

Winter Sleep (2014), dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Academy Award Nominated, BAFTA Winning filmmaker Akira Kurosawa! ^__^

[fridaypacific]

Weekly Wrap Up

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto / Madadayo / Gate of Hell / Lastfm

Last.fm / Letterboxd

[pacingmusings]

Seen (again) in 2021:

Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa), 1993

[ozu-teapot]

Madadayo | Akira Kurosawa | 1993

Tatsuo Matsumura, Akira Terao, George Tokoro, Asei Kobayashi, Hisashi Igawa, et al.

[apicturespeaks]

Madadayo, Akira Kurosawa