Synopsis
In 1943. a teacher of German at a university, Professor Uchida announces to his students one day that he will be retiring. After his retirement, many of his students visit him regularly Uchida and Uchida’s wife’s house. One day, when his students gather to celebrate his 60th birthday, the bombs begin to fall on Tokyo and Uchida\'s house is lost.

Program Note
KUROSAWA Akira’s final film, Madadayo, is a work that could be described as mild and simple for its perspectives on the war and
 post-war history, especially in comparison to the director’s previous masterpieces, which are characterized by his perfectionism.
 On the other hand, negatively speaking, the film also gives the impression of being naive. Nevertheless, despite its calm and
 uneventful mood, Madadayo is not at all as simple as it appears. When the war breaks out, an elderly former professor and
 his wife lose their house to a fire caused by an air raid and move into a small hut. The hut is barely big enough for the couple
 to lay themselves down. The situation seems tragic but the air raids take place off screen and the four months that the couple
 spends in the hut are presentenced like scenes from a fairytale. It is ambiguous whether we should interpret the film’s attitude
 as an expression of peculiar nostalgia or optimism necessary to endure a demolished world. The long episode concerning the
 disappearance of their pet cat adds to the film’s strange ambiguity. Here KAGAWA Kyoko is at the height of her so-called ‘reaction’
 acting. Although she appears on the screen all throughout the film she neither speaks much nor takes any significant actions. Yet,
 she is continuously busy doing something: listening to others’ stories, looking around and getting things organized. Her acting
 formed with ‘reactions’ in this film seems to represent the way women survive standing aside but unaffected by men’s ambivalent
 nostalgia during and after the war which involves sense of defeat and pride. [HWANG Miyojo]