Today is my birthday. Joy. Whenever I think of birthdays, I think of Kurosawa's final movie, Madadayo from 1993. In this movie, the main character, a beloved teacher, celebrates his birthday with a grand party among his many former students. He takes a tall mug of beer, slams the whole thing down in one pass, then shouts out, "Madadayo!" "I'm Not Dead Yet!" It's a wonderful final movie by a master of cinema.
I always thought that was a clever way to celebrate one's birthday. And it's impressive to see grampa slam down a pint of beer like he's 19 years old. Which just happens to be my age. Yeah, that's the ticket...Nineteen!
(times two, cough)
Shut up! I can't hear you! La la la la la!!
8 comments:
Happy Birthday Mr MacInnes! Hope it's a good one.
Many happy returns of this very same day! May you always feel like you are 19, however old you are according to the papers - that's the most important thing in life.
Happy Birthday! Great choice of movie! Love Kurosawa!
Happy birthday, MacInnes-san!
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'm a great fan of Kurosawa; he's in my upper tier of movie directors, alongside Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, and all the usual suspects from The Criterion Collection. Kurosawa's final films were not as well received as his samurai westerns, but they're terrific movies for me. Madadayo, especially, has a certain Miyazaki-Takahata charm, very warm and humane and full of life.
I know I should be blogging more today, but between the party in the basement, Coltrane's Crescent on the turntable, and food on the table, I'm easily distracted tonight. Also, the surreal revelations about Nintendo's next console are stealing away my attention (I don't want a tablet, I want my Wiimote, thank you very much).
Otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu Daniel-san!
Any many more!
Paul
Happy birthday :)
Happy Birthday!!!!!
I love your blog and been reading it for a long long time. Thank you for sharing the news with us. May this year and years to come be your best years :)
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