is a 1983

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

by director

Shōhei Imamura was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...

. It stars Sumiko Sakamoto as Orin,

Ken Ogata , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor. Life Ogata was born in Tokyo, Japan. Ogata is well known for his roles in Peter Greenaway's '' The Pillow Book'', Paul Schrader's '' Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'' and Shohei Imam ...

, and

Shoichi Ozawa was a Japanese actor, radio host, singer, and prominent researcher and expert on Japanese folk art. He also founded the Shabondama-za theater company. Ozawa, who was born in Tokyo, graduated from Waseda University. He began acting after college, ...

. It is an adaptation of the book ''Narayama bushikō'' by

Shichirō Fukazawa was a Japanese author and guitarist whose 1960 short story ''Fūryū mutan'' ("Tale of an Elegant Dream") caused a nationwide uproar and led to an attempt by an ultranationalist to assassinate the president of the magazine that published it. B ...

and slightly inspired by the 1958 film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. Both films explore the legendary practice of ''

ubasute is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India’ ...

'', in which elderly people were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die. Imamura's film won the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

''The Ballad of Narayama'' was filmed in

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

and

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

Plot

The film is set in a small rural village in Japan in the 19th century. According to tradition, once a person reaches the age of 70 he or she must travel to a remote mountain to die of starvation, a practice known as

. The story concerns Orin, who is 69 and of sound health, but notes that a neighbor had to drag his father to the mountain, so she resolves to avoid clinging to life beyond her term. She spends a year arranging all the affairs of her family and village: she severely punishes a family who are hoarding food, and helps her younger son lose his virginity. The film has some harsh scenes that show how brutal the conditions could be for the villagers. Interspersed between episodes in the film are brief vignettes of nature – birds, snakes, and other animals hunting, watching, singing, copulating or giving birth.

Cast

– Tatsuhei * Sumiko Sakamoto – Orin * Tonpei Hidari – Risuke *

Aki Takejo Aki or AKI may refer to: Places in Japan *Aki District, Hiroshima, a district in Hiroshima Prefecture *Aki, Kōchi, a city in Kochi Prefecture *Aki District, Kōchi, a district in Kochi Prefecture *Aki, Ōita, a town in Ōita Prefecture *Aki Provi ...

– Tamayan *

– Katsuzō *

Fujio Tokita Fujio (written: 正行, 藤雄, 藤夫, 不二夫, 富士雄, 冨士夫, 富士夫, 富士男, 希仁男 or ふじを, ふじお in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Mon ...

– Jinsaku * Sanshō Shinsui – Zeniya no Matayan * Seiji Kurasaki – Kesakichi * Junko Takada – Matsuyan *

Mitsuko Baisho , is a Japanese actress, whose most internationally known work has been for director Shohei Imamura, from 1979 up to the director's final film in 2010. Baisho has also appeared in films of Akira Kurosawa. She won awards for best actress at the 10 ...

– Oei *

Taiji Tonoyama was a Japanese character actor who made many appearances in films and on television from 1939 to 1989. He was a close friend of Kaneto Shindo and one of his regular cast members. He was also an essayist. In 1950 he helped form the film company ...

– Teruyan * Casey Takamine – Arayashiki *

Nenji Kobayashi is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Poppoya''. Kobayashi signed with Toei in 1961 and started his acting career with small roles. Filmography Film * '' Soshiki Bōryoku'' (1967 ...

– Tsune * Nijiko Kiyokawa – Okane * Akio Yokoyama – Amaya

Box office

Upon its Japanese release in 1983, the film earned in

distributor rentals A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is freq ...

and in gross receipts, equivalent to ticket sales. Overseas, the film sold tickets in

the Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, 844,077 tickets in France upon release in 1983, and 1,696 tickets in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain between 1996 and 2018, for a combined estimated total of approximately tickets sold worldwide.

Awards

*Cannes Film Festival (1983) **Palme d'Or *

Japan Academy Film Prize The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

(1984) **Best Actor

**Best Film **Best Sound Kenichi Benitani *

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

(1984) **Best Actor

Excellence in Cinematography Award Excellence may refer to: * ''Excellence'' (magazine), for owners and fans of Porsche cars * Excellence (pop group), a Swedish pop group * ''Excellence'' (software), a word processor for the Amiga * ''Excellence'' (yacht), launched 2019 * Excellenc ...

(1984): Masao Tochizawa *

Hochi Film Award The are film-specific prizes awarded by the ''Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. ...

(1983) **Best Supporting Actress

Mainichi Film Concours The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

(1984) **Best Actor (

) **Best Sound Recording: Kenichi Benitani

Anecdote

In early 2000s, the movie had a chance to be released in China, on condition that the sex scenes were censored. The director Imamura consulted some Chinese directors. They replied that the sex scenes were necessary contrast to the scenes of death. Imamura decided to turn down the proposal.''China Times'' (中國時報) in Taipei. Date unknown.

Home media

''The Ballad of Narayama'' was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in May 2010. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the theatrical trailer.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad of Narayama, The Japanese comedy-drama films Films directed by Shohei Imamura 1983 films 1983 comedy-drama films Remakes of Japanese films Palme d'Or winners 1980s Japanese-language films Films set in the 19th century Films set in Japan Toei Company films Picture of the Year Japan Academy Prize winners Films based on Japanese novels Films about death 1983 comedy films 1983 drama films 1980s Japanese films