Featured Audience Ratings

• danny d

  
  the farewell address from the greatest director in history. while this film is nowhere near one of kurosawas best, it is still very good. just watching kurosawa direct a film with modern developments in cinematography was a treat. the diologue was as profound as usual in kurosawas… More
  the farewell address from the greatest director in history. while this film is nowhere near one of kurosawas best, it is still very good. just watching kurosawa direct a film with modern developments in cinematography was a treat. the diologue was as profound as usual in kurosawas scripts, and the broad sense of the story was intriguing. the only thing holding this film back was a 40 minute span of the film that seemed like a titanic waste of time where the professor and his students mourn feverishly over a lost cat. i actually cried for a week when my cat died so i actually kind of get it, but pausing an otherwise genius story for 40 minutes for this cat story felt misplaced, purposeless, and made for bad movie watching. really, its the only wasted section of any kurosawa film that he ever made. despite this, the film is profound and worth watching.

• Gevvy S

  
  The perfect last film for Kurosawa to make in my mind. The professor never seems to shrink away from living his life despite his age and not really having any solid goals to fulfill in retirement. The main character is absolutely endearing because he never runs out of funny things to… More
  The perfect last film for Kurosawa to make in my mind. The professor never seems to shrink away from living his life despite his age and not really having any solid goals to fulfill in retirement. The main character is absolutely endearing because he never runs out of funny things to say and is amiably eccentric. The film suffers from being a bit overlong, a little too much group singing to transition to different points, and is somewhat sentimentalized at points. These faults that would've made another directors film unbearable are but mere blemishes on this film. The 60th birthday party for the professor is a terrific and fun sequence which shows such great camaraderie between all the students and the professor. The missing cat subplot was hard to get into because it was difficult to relate to the importance of the cat despite the film's attempts to explain the significance of the cat to the professor. The film did succeed in showing that the professor was indeed deeply invested in the cat emotionally. This film is great because it illustrated for me the pleasure in friendship and the importance of allowing yourself to enjoy life without trying to force anything.

• Anthony V

  
  Sometimes amusing, often touching story of a retired Japanese professor during WWII, who inspires devotion from his former students. A great metaphor for Kurosawa himself, fittingly his last film as director. Beautifully shot, and the characters feel very real.