The Ballad of Narayama
01/06/1958
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?
Movie Information
Kinuyo Tanaka
as Orin
Teiji Takahashi
as Tatsuhei
Yūko Mochizuki
as Tamayan
Seiji Miyaguchi
as Matayan
Yūnosuke Itō
as Matayan's son
Ken Mitsuda
as Teruyan
Danko Ichikawa
as Kesakichi
Keiko Ogasawara
as Matsu-yan
Eijirō Tōno
as Messenger
Kō Nishimura
as One of the villagers who Teaches Narayama's Manners (uncredited)
Katsuyuki Hattori
as Tatsuhei's son (uncredited)
Tokuji Kobayashi
as One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)
Masao Oda
as One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)
