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