The Ballad of Narayama

Unrated

6/22/19842h 10m

Premiere Release (US)

~ Only Time Could Change the Cruelty of Tradition… Only Their Love Could Survive It… ~

Overview:

In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

Director:

Shōhei Imamura

Status:

Released

Language:

Japanese

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

pink film

Cast

Ken Ogata

~ as ~

Tatsuhei

Sumiko Sakamoto

~ as ~

Orin

Tonpei Hidari

~ as ~

Risuke

Aki Takejo

~ as ~

Tamayan

Shoichi Ozawa

~ as ~

Katsuzô

Fujio Tokita

~ as ~

Jinsaku

Sanshō Shinsui

~ as ~

Zeniya Tadayan

Seiji Kurasaki

~ as ~

Kesakichi

Junko Takada

~ as ~

Matsuyan

Taiji Tonoyama

~ as ~

Teruyan

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

b
badelf
Written 1 year(s) ago
10
The short review is "life's a bitch, then you die" LOL, that doesn't do this absolutely brilliant film any justice, though.

Imamura has crafted a rather sardonic, brutally honest mirror of humans. Like humans, it is both hard to watch, and simultaneously invokes emapthy. Few directors every achieve this level of mastery of the audience's emotions. It holds a well-deserved Palme d'Or.

The legend upon which the movie is based is called Ubasute (姥捨て) in Japanese, or "abandoning an old woman". There is no evidence of it ever being a common practice, though it's a persistent myth in Japan. One of the very plain statements of the director, is that Ubasute reflects the way contemporary Western culture treats it's elderly. In the USA, at least, nursing homes substitute for Narayama mountain.