The Professor

In October 2020, I watched The Professor for the first time at Kinema Junpo Theater. The comedy drama film is released in 2018 starring Johnny Depp. I came to want to watch Depp's superb act and a friendship between two college professors, one of whom Depp played, in it again after I saw a wonderful performance that Depp gave in Minamata at a theater in September 2021 and a friendship tale of a lame teacher played by Mads Mikkelsen and his three colleagues in Another Round at it in October 2021. I love the film which I have done several times since I first did it.

It depicts how the middle-aged professor Richard has lived since he was diagnosed as lung cancer and was told his remaining days.

Richard is told his days by his doctor and on the evening he has dinner and tries to speak about his cancer to his wife and their only daughter when their daughter comes out as a lesbian. Although his wife laughs it off saying to her that it is temporary, yet Richard shows an understanding of it. He should have agreed with his wife, been indifferent to it, or persuaded his daughter to keep it secret considering their reputation like an ordinary father if he had not known about his near future. Afterward, his wife confesses her affairs to him, however, he shows no anger at her and is just amazed by the fact that her lover is the dean of his college because he has despised the snobbish dean. His best friend, a colleague of him, eventually becomes the first person who he talks to about his terminal cancer. Richard starts to teach his students uniquely and soulfully in his classes like a teacher played Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, though he seemingly looks to be apathetic. Richard is amusing when he unkindly treats a student of feminism. He also reminded me Mads Mikkelsen acting a middle-aged teacher, who absorbs his student with the help of alcohol, when he gets drunk and high on marijuana in his classes. I believe that such classes are far more instructive for young students than boring ones just in order to get good grades on tests

Johnny Depp performed Richard charmingly and sometimes cynically through most of the flick. He looked to be really awesome, though he acted the role of a lame middle-aged man.

The film is also wonderful because you can watch it without pessimism and consider about death that is demanding when you do that myself.