Madadayo

[Mark Schilling]

Why didn't Madadayo ever find a US distributor? Daiei was the film's sales
company. I remembered visiting their suite several times at Cannes in 1993
and seeing nothing but empty chairs and gloomy faces. They had discussions
with several foreign distributors, but they did not sign a deal for North
America at that market or, as far as I can recall, any other market.
     Reasons? The film bombed spectacularly in Japan -- I don't think it
was in the theaters much longer than two weeks in Tokyo. Also, the critical
reaction was very bad. Given that the domestic and foreign reaction to
Kurosawa's two previous films -- Rhapsody in August and Dreams -- was also
less than enthusiastc, a buyer would  have to be either a die-hard Kurosawa
fan or extraordinarily optimistic to take a flyer on Mada Da Yo, arguably
the master's weakest film.

Mark Schilling (schill at gol.com)      

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