Madadayo

A lifetime of moviemaking -- Kurosawa was 83 when he made it -- seems to have pared down his technique to its essentials.

The movie is a study in quiet revelations.

This is the kind of film we would all like to make, if we were very old and very serene. There were times when I felt uncannily as if Kurosawa were filming his own graceful decline into the night.

Although not of the level of his masterpieces, “Madadayo” is still an excellent movie, one that highlights the prowess of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and a more than fitting goodbye to a more than impressive career.