Ballad of Narayama
Saturday 9:30am
Directed by: Keisuke Kinoshita
Released: 1958
Run time: 98 minutes
Certificate: PG
A stylish and vividly formal work of great beauty from Japan’s cinematic golden age
The film explores the legendary practice of obasute, in which elderly people from a poor rural village were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die once they reached the age of 70.
The sacrificial elder at the center of the tale is Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka), a dignified and dutiful woman who accepts her startlingly cruel fate and spends her last days securing the happiness of her loyal widowed son.
Presented in the kabuki theatre style, and filmed almost entirely on cunningly designed studio sets, the narrative is structured around song and dance. In its matter-of-fact juxtaposition of fate and art, Kinoshita's film leaves an indelible impression.
