Backdrop
Movie Poster
7.8

The Ballad of Narayama

DramaNot Rated

Duration

1h 38m

Release

1 Jun 1958

Country

Japan

Language

Japanese

Overview

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?

Plot

A kabuki theatre-inflected story about a poor village whose people have to be carried to a nearby mountain to die once they get old.

Cast

Kinuyo TanakaTeiji TakahashiYûko Mochizuki

Ratings

Internet Movie Database: 7.8/10Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

Details

Director

Keisuke Kinoshita

Writers

Shichirô FukazawaKeisuke Kinoshita

Awards

6 wins & 1 nomination total

Trailers

Teasers

Clips

Featurettes

Bloopers

Recaps

Behind The Scenes

All Videos

Trailer

Trailer

Watch Now