What is "daibyonin"

is a 1993 film directed by the Japanese film director Juzo Itami, about the final year of a successful film director suffering from cancer.

The film can be seen as a criticism of the traditional attitudes of Japanese doctors to their patients, especially the withholding of information from patients suffering from terminal illnesses. It also touches on other end-of-life issues for the terminally ill.

The cast includes Rentarō Mikuni (Buhei Mikai, the film director), Masahiko Tsugawa (Doctor Ogata) and Nobuko Miyamoto (Buhei‘s wife).

Mikuni was nominated for the Best Actor award at the Japanese Academy Awards for his role in this film and Tsuribaka nisshi 6.

During a showing of this film in Japan, a cinema screen was slashed by a right-wing protestor.