The Ballad of Narayama
楢山節考 (original)
This haunting, kabuki-inflected version of a Japanese folk legend is set in a remote mountain village where food is scarce and tradition dictates that citizens who have reached their seventieth year must be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. The sacrificial elder at the center of the tale is Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka), a dignified and dutiful woman who spends her dwindling days securing the happiness of her loyal widowed son with a respectable new wife. Filmed almost entirely on cunningly designed studio sets, in brilliant color and widescreen, The Ballad of Narayama is a stylish and vividly formal work from Japan’s cinematic golden age, directed by the dynamic Keisuke Kinoshita.
Starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Teiji Takahashi, Yūko Mochizuki, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yūnosuke Itō, Ken Mitsuda, Danko Ichikawa, Keiko Ogasawara, Eijirō Tōno
Watch "The Ballad of Narayama" from streaming services Criterion Channel, Amazon released in 1958. It's a drama and romance movie, and has a rating of 7.8 out of 10 from Imdb which is usually fine for this kind of movie.
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