The Ballad of Narayama

The Ballad of Narayama

1958 · 1 hr 38 min · Not Rated

Drama

Directors

Keisuke Kinoshita

Actors

  • Kinuyo Tanaka
  • Teiji Takahashi
  • Yûko Mochizuki

Credits: 9

Summary

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.

More about this movie

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?