To my dismay, the first hour of the movie felt like the last ten minutes of Dead Poets Society. Madadayo begins with a beloved Professor's announcement of retirement. The students proceed to praise the teaching, calling him "pure gold", even standing up to give him honors. This is the gushing idealism of most teacher movies. Fortunately, my impatience with the first half was my mistake.
Although this is a movie about the professor-student relationship it is not a teacher movie. The professor never earns his place among the students. He is not a genius. He seems ordinary of mind, but his good spirit and endless witticisms that make him rather charming. His frailty is his distinction from the beloved teachers of teacher movies. Though the students hold the professor in upmost respect, the movie focuses on their common bond of friendship. The result is a reverence for life- life lived in old age.
Madadayo means "not yet". The professor, at each birthday, reports to his students that he is "not yet" ready to die. This awareness of life is a cliche of teacher movies. This professor does not know how to live life, he simply wants to live. At one point, the professor looses his cat. This beautifully directed section of the movie discloses the professor's fears of death, his own insecurities, his frailty, and thus his humanity. He does not have the answers. His wife patiently watches her husband mourns over the loss of the cat. The professor will not eat or sleep because of the missing cat. The wife understands that his exaggerated attention to the lost cat is simply a manifestation of his inner fears, which is why she does not get jealous and ask for similar attention. The professor is not ready for death, yet we are constantly reminded of his mortality (especially at his birthday parties). Kurasawa achieves something beyond the literal images, which makes this movie hard to review. Here is an example of superb direction.
The ending also is beautiful. It comes to terms with death, removes the tension, the horror of the unknown in a honest way. The direction here again is superb.
The biggest flaw of the movie is that the students have a perfect relationship with the professor and this is not human. The students never disappoint the professor. They always come to his side. They build him a house when he is in need. They search for his cat. They throw him wonderful parties. They love him endlessly. No group of people have ever been this perfectly devoted. It is a nice fantasy, but when the best part of the movie is its humanity, its frailty, it seems that some realism should be considered with relationships. Yes, people can have genuinely good friendships, but there has to be some time when a friend lets a friend down. This never happens in the movie. And though it is nice to watch, it simply does not relate to life in the way the best parts of the movie do.
Nevertheless, this is a great movie to end a career on. It may not be a great movie, but it's search for life in the struggle with death is both sincere and realistic. The movie, at its best moments, is inspiring and at its worst moments, naively idealistic. It is hopeful of death, which a conclusion most movies dealing with the subject do not conclude. It is the kind of realization one hopes to achieve at the end of a lifetime. This is what Kurasawa did.
~Kristen Gorlitz