The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (1963)
"Eburi manshi no yûga-na seikatsu" (original title)

Director:

Kihachi Okamoto

Writers:

Toshirô Ide, Hitomi Yamaguchi (novel)

Stars:

Keiju Kobayashi, Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuyoshi Ehara

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Keiju Kobayashi
Michiyo Aratama
Tatsuyoshi Ehara
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Akihiko Hirata
Eijirô Tôno
Yuriko Hanabusa	...	(as Yuriko Hide)
Tadao Nakamaru
Jerry Ito
Tatsuo Matsumura
Hiroko Minami
Miki Yashiro
Masanari Nihei	...	(as Masaya Nihei)
Teruzo Okawa
Yoshiyuki Uemura

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

16 November 1963 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Overlooked masterpiece

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that manages to be both funny and sad at the exact same time, essentially throughout it's entire running time. We're introduced to Eburi, a chubby employee of an advertisement company who's single joy seems to be the one day a week he goes out drinking. However, his life is about to change. His drunken rantings has caught the attention of two journalists, who he, in his drunken state, promises to write a masterpiece of a novel. Not finding anything better to write about, he starts recalling his own life.

Using every means to convey a story; from animation, to aesthetics of silent cinema to stop motion The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman is filled with playfulness, creativity and soul. Eburi's observations of life are poignant, feels true to life and are of a irresistibly humorous manner. Kihachi Okamoto truly manages to capture what could very well be called the essence of life, or at least these peoples essence of life. Everyone in this movie, that are given a decent amount of screen time, feels like real people. It's never glamorous, everybody are flawed, and it's all related through the keenest observation. The movie notes the trite situation of life, the everyday struggle through reality, and it does it like no other movie I've ever seen before.

I sat bewitched. Laughing out loud at numerous occasion, while never losing my smile, yet feeling the underlying sorrow in almost every scene. Sometimes the tragedy takes precedence, but in the next minute I'm essentially rolling around in uncontrollable laughter because the scene and mood turned 180 degrees. Essentially every aspect of this movie is perfect. It's creative artistic touches, beautiful visuals, in-depth performances all compliments each other. It manages to be hilarious, intensely captivating and profound. I take my hat off to Okamoto, who has now earned a solid spot among my favorite directors.