{ "id": "epnzrhcvw4", "slug": "madadayo", "title": "Madadayo (まあだだよ)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s", "label": "Drama films early 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s", "label": "Drama films 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Madadayo (まあだだよ, \"Not yet\") is Akira Kurosawa's 1993 final film, his 30th, based on writer Hyakken Uchida; a professor's students honor him yearly with \"Not yet!\" birthday toasts.", "snippet": "Madadayo (まあだだよ, \"Not yet\") is Akira Kurosawa's 1993 final film, his 30th, based on writer Hyakken Uchida; a professor's students honor him yearly with \"Not yet!\" birthday toasts.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1990s.drama-films-early-1990s", "markdown": "# Madadayo (まあだだよ)\n\n**Madadayo** (まあだだよ, \"Not yet\") is a 1993 Japanese drama directed by [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa), based on the autobiographical writings of the essayist and educator Hyakken Uchida (内田百閒). It was Kurosawa's thirtieth film as director, made to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his filmmaking career, and it proved to be his final film.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | April 17, 1993 (Japan), 134 minutes, color[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) |\n| Position in Kurosawa's career | His 30th directed film, marking 50 years of directing, and his last[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) |\n| Source | Episodes based on the writings of Hyakken Uchida (1889–1971), a popular writer and educator[3](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/madadayo) |\n| Title meaning | \"Not yet!\", the professor's ritual reply at his birthday parties to the question of whether he is ready (to die)[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) |\n| Principal cast | Tatsuo Matsumura (Professor Uchida), Kyoko Kagawa (his wife), Hisashi Igawa (Takayama), George Tokoro (Amaki)[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/9883-madadayo) |\n| Festival | Special screening at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) |\n| Reception | Metascore 79 (generally favorable); Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 88% from 16 reviews[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/madadayo/critic-reviews/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/madadayo) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film opens in 1943, in the dark years of the war, when Professor Uchida tells his students that he is leaving the university to devote himself to writing.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) • [7](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/151927) His former students keep visiting him at his new home, and the film follows the professor, his wife, and this circle of devoted pupils through the war years and after.[7](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/151927)\n\nDuring a celebration of the professor's sixtieth birthday, an air raid strikes; his house is burned, and he and his wife move into a small borrowed hut.[7](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/151927) The students' support continues through hardship, and an annual birthday celebration, the \"Modakai\" (摩阿陀会), becomes a yearly institution where the gathering drinks beer and the professor shouts the ritual answer \"Madadayo!\"[8](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/101023) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) The title phrase comes from the Japanese version of hide-and-seek, where the call \"Are you ready?\" is answered with \"Not yet!\"; in the film it becomes a running refusal of death.[9](https://eiga.com/movie/28357/) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998)\n\nThe film is built as a series of distinct episodes drawn from Uchida's writings, illustrating the affection and loyalty between the professor and his students.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/9883-madadayo) Among the best-remembered passages are the professor's comic signs directing burglars through his house, and his prolonged grief over the disappearance of his ginger cat Nora.[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) • [10](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2025/11/kurosawas-madadayo/)\n\n## Production\n\nKurosawa was 83 when he made the film.[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) He wrote the screenplay and edited the film himself; the cinematography is credited to Takao Saito and Masaharu Ueda, the production design to Yoshiro Muraki, and the music to Shinichiro Ikebe.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/9883-madadayo) It was produced by Daiei, Dentsu, and Kurosawa Production and distributed in Japan by Toho.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) According to the BFI, the film was aimed squarely at a domestic audience, financed largely in Japan, and distributed by Kurosawa's former home studio Toho.[11](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/pdf/2023-02-20-madadayo.pdf)\n\nTatsuo Matsumura, known to Japanese audiences for the \"Tora-san\" film series, was chosen for the lead; George Tokoro's casting as one of the pupils drew attention as an unusual choice for a Kurosawa film.[8](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/101023) • [12](https://movie.jorudan.co.jp/film/27797/) Kyoko Kagawa, playing the professor's wife, returned to a Kurosawa film after 28 years, and her performance won the Award of the Japanese Academy for Best Supporting Actress.[13](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/site2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/01/201111-12.pdf)\n\nKurosawa had not intended the film to be his last; despite declining health he continued to work on new ideas afterward.[14](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/akira-kurosawas-first-last-films-sanshiro-sugata-madadayo) He died in 1998.[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film was shown as a special screening at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim there.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696) On Metacritic it holds a Metascore of 79, with nine positive and two mixed reviews and none negative.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/madadayo/critic-reviews/) Rotten Tomatoes records an 88% Tomatometer from 16 reviews and an 81% audience score from more than 2,500 ratings.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/madadayo)\n\nCritics divided over its tone. Roger Ebert, the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic and 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) winner for criticism, wrote that the film resembled the quiet domestic dramas of Yasujiro Ozu more than Kurosawa's own spectacles, and quoted Kurosawa saying the film was about \"something very precious, which has been all but forgotten: The enviable world of warm hearts.\"[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998) The New York Times review called it \"not one of Kurosawa's great films... But it is, within its own proportions, nearly perfect.\"[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/madadayo/critic-reviews/) Time Out took the opposite view, calling it maudlin and nostalgic.[15](https://www.timeout.com/movies/madadayo) The film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, writing in Film Comment, defended the film's freedom and lack of pretension while acknowledging its limits.[10](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2025/11/kurosawas-madadayo/)\n\n## Closing image and legacy\n\nThe BFI notes a deliberate symmetry in Kurosawa's career: just as the camera panned down in the opening moments of his first film, *Sanshiro Sugata* (1943), it pans back up at the conclusion of *Madadayo*, as a small boy raises his head to a swirling sky of pinks and yellows.[14](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/akira-kurosawas-first-last-films-sanshiro-sugata-madadayo) The film ends with the professor, after the seventeenth Modakai in 1962, dreaming of himself as a child.[16](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1993_n.html)\n\nThe film has remained available through home video and streaming, including the Criterion Collection's *AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa* box set and the Criterion Channel, and a Blu-ray with English subtitles was released by Imprint Asia.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/9883-madadayo) • [17](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/madadayo-blu-ray-review)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Madadayo, Japanese Film Database (JFDB)](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/9696)\n2. [Roger Ebert, \"Madadayo\" review, Chicago Sun-Times (1998)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/madadayo-1998)\n3. [Film Fest Gent: Madadayo](https://www.filmfestival.be/en/film/madadayo)\n4. [Madadayo, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/9883-madadayo)\n5. [Madadayo critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/madadayo/critic-reviews/)\n6. [Madadayo, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/madadayo)\n7. [まあだだよ（1993）, allcinema](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/151927)\n8. [まあだだよ, WOWOWオンライン](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/101023)\n9. [まあだだよ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/28357/)\n10. [Jonathan Rosenbaum, \"Kurosawa's MADADAYO\", Film Comment (2000)](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2025/11/kurosawas-madadayo/)\n11. [BFI programme notes: Madadayo (2023)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/pdf/2023-02-20-madadayo.pdf)\n12. [まあだだよの上映スケジュール・映画情報, 映画の時間 (Jorudan)](https://movie.jorudan.co.jp/film/27797/)\n13. [National Film Archive of Japan program (2011)](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/site2023/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/01/201111-12.pdf)\n14. [Akira Kurosawa's first and last films, Sanshiro Sugata and Madadayo, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/akira-kurosawas-first-last-films-sanshiro-sugata-madadayo)\n15. [Madadayo review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/madadayo)\n16. [日本映画レビュー─1993年: まあだだよ](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1993_n.html)\n17. [Madadayo Blu-ray review, The Digital Bits](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/madadayo-blu-ray-review)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films early 1990s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Madadayo (まあだだよ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Madadayo (まあだだよ)](https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo](https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Madadayo (まあだだよ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/madadayo. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Madadayo is Akira Kurosawa's 1993 final film, his 30th, based on writer Hyakken Uchida; a professor's students honor him yearly with \"Not yet!\" birthday toasts." }