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IMDbPro

Byôin de shinu to iu koto

  • 19931993
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
70
YOUR RATING
Byôin de shinu to iu koto (1993)
  • Drama
Filmed in a documentary style six patients in six wards of different ages and circumstances await death at a hospital in Japan. The sterile and dismal environment is contrasted against the e... Read allFilmed in a documentary style six patients in six wards of different ages and circumstances await death at a hospital in Japan. The sterile and dismal environment is contrasted against the emotional being of the patients, their visitors and relatives and the outside world, which ... Read allFilmed in a documentary style six patients in six wards of different ages and circumstances await death at a hospital in Japan. The sterile and dismal environment is contrasted against the emotional being of the patients, their visitors and relatives and the outside world, which they will never again survey.
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
70
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Jun Ichikawa
  • Writers
    • Fumio Yamazaki(based on the book by)
    • Jun Ichikawa(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Ittoku Kishibe
    • Masayuki Shionoya
    • Akira Yamanouchi
Top credits
  • Director
    • Jun Ichikawa
  • Writers
    • Fumio Yamazaki(based on the book by)
    • Jun Ichikawa(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Ittoku Kishibe
    • Masayuki Shionoya
    • Akira Yamanouchi
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 1User review
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 1 nomination

    Photos

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    Top cast

    Edit
    Ittoku Kishibe
    • Dr. Yamaokaas Dr. Yamaoka
    Masayuki Shionoya
    Masayuki Shionoya
    • Toshio Noguchias Toshio Noguchi
    Akira Yamanouchi
    Akira Yamanouchi
    • Kenji Kawamuraas Kenji Kawamura
    Reiko Nanao
    • Haruyo Ikedaas Haruyo Ikeda
    Yae Hashimoto
    Hiroshi Tamura
    • Director
      • Jun Ichikawa
    • Writers
      • Fumio Yamazaki(based on the book by)
      • Jun Ichikawa(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    User reviews1

    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    A Nutshell Review: Dying at a Hospital
    I'm eagerly awaiting to watch the other Ichikawa Jun movies because the only one I've seen to date is Tony Takitani. The styles used in Takitani and Dying at a Hospital are no less at opposite ends of the spectrum. Takitani had the camera constantly flowing, if I recall correctly, from left to right, as if turning the pages of a book, and provided a somewhat natural scene transition. But in Dying, the camera stays so still, it's like watching a stage play unfold right in front of you, and fade to black transitions, for almost all scenes, was the preferred technique used.

    Ichikawa captured the feel of a hospital succinctly. Recently, there was talk by our Health Minister with regards to allowing people to die at home, versus spending their last days in the confines of an institution, and I thought this film would have backed that reasoning perfectly. I've had my fair share of stays in hospitals / medic wards in my younger days, and it's no fun being in that environment. Watching the movie, it brought back memories when I was visited by doctors for Q&A and nurses for the periodic miscellaneous checks and pill popping, and being hooked up to a drip was no fun, especially when you need to go to the bathroom. In a public ward, sometimes you do see the frail and the very weak, and family members shuffling into and out of the wards come visiting hours, some with tears in their eyes. Despite its sterile environment, there's somehow this overhanging sense of sadness looming around the corner.

    It's a mixture of fictional narrative short stories, interspersed with non-fictional documentary styled shots of various random scenes depicting the whizzing by of everyday life, outside of the hospital of course. It's as if you're witness to the struggles that the sick and the dying face within the four walls, while time waits for nobody. The short stories too were different from one another, involving an elderly couple who wished to stay together in sickness and in health, a vagrant who was picked up on the street, whose story was quite cold and sad in that there's obviously no instances where there are visitors made up on friends and family, and I particularly liked the story which served as the closing - an extremely touching piece. All the short stories are self-contained, but when strung together in a movie like this, provides a kaleidoscope issues you'd come to expect from a typical day at the hospital, especially when the narration (is it a hallmark of Ichigawa movies?) comes from different perspectives, which included doctors, patients and even nurses.

    A quiet, contemplative piece with a sense of hope in its closing remarks, you seldom see the facial expressions of the characters up close, as the camera mimics the usual distance one would most times keep from the other patients (at least for me, for reasons unknown), in curious to know more, but yet want to maintain that emotional detachment.
    helpful•2
    0
    • DICK STEEL
    • Sep 18, 2007

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 24, 1993 (Japan)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • Dying at a Hospital
    • Production companies
      • Kindai Eiga Kyokai
      • OPT Communications
      • TV Tokyo
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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