Ballad of Narayama

1958 · Movie · 98 min. · Japan

Drama Elderly

In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?

Direction Keisuke Kinoshita

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Teiji Takahashi · Yûko Mochizuki · Danko Ichikawa · Keiko Ogasawara · Seiji Miyaguchi · Yûnosuke Itô · Ken Mitsuda · Eijirô Tono