The Ballad of Narayama
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?
Release Date
June 1, 1958Runtime
98 minGenres
DramaDirected by
Keisuke Kinoshita, Yoshikazu ŌtsukiWritten by
Keisuke KinoshitaLanguage
JapaneseBudget
$0Revenue
$0Status
ReleasedCast
Kinuyo Tanaka
OrinTeiji Takahashi
TatsuheiYūko Mochizuki
TamayanSeiji Miyaguchi
MatayanYūnosuke Itō
Matayan's sonDanko Ichikawa
KesakichiEijirō Tōno
MessengerKō Nishimura
One of the villagers who Teaches Narayama's Manners (uncredited)Tokuji Kobayashi
One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)Masao Oda
One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)Images
Videos
THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA (1958) Trailer | Director: Keisuke Kinoshita
The Ballad of Narayama - Trailer
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