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This haunting, kabuki-inflected version of a Japanese folk legend is set in a remote mountain village where food is scarce and tradition dictates that citizens who have reached their seventieth year must be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. The sacrificial elder at the center of the tale is Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka), a dignified and dutiful woman who spends her dwindling days securing the happiness of her loyal widowed son with a respectable new wife. Filmed almost entirely on cunningly designed studio sets, in brilliant color and widescreen, The Ballad of Narayama is a stylish and vividly formal work from Japan’s cinematic golden age, directed by the dynamic Keisuke Kinoshita.
Original Release
06/01/1958
US Release
06/19/1961
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Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Kinuyo Tanaka | Orin |
Teiji Takahashi | Tatsuhei |
Yûko Mochizuki | Tamayan |
Danko Ichikawa | Kesakichi |
Seiji Miyaguchi | Mata-yan / Matayan |
Yunosuke Ito | Matayan's son |
Eijirô Tôno | Messenger |
Ken Mitsuda | Teruyan |
Keiko Ogasawara | Matsu-yan |
Masao Oda | Villager |
Directors
Writers
Keisuke Kinoshita, Shichirō Fukazawa
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Kinuyo Tanaka | Orin |
Teiji Takahashi | Tatsuhei |
Yûko Mochizuki | Tamayan |
Danko Ichikawa | Kesakichi |
Seiji Miyaguchi | Mata-yan / Matayan |
Yunosuke Ito | Matayan's son |
Eijirô Tôno | Messenger |
Ken Mitsuda | Teruyan |
Keiko Ogasawara | Matsu-yan |
Masao Oda | Villager |
Ko Nishimura | Villager |
Shôsuke Oni | Ameya |
Nobuo Takagi | Yakimatsu |
Tokuji Kobayashi | Villager |
Isao Suenaga | Villager |
Kazuko Motohashi | Villager |
Kotohisa Satsukime | Tatsuhei's son |
Katsuyuki Hattori | Tatsuhei's son |
Heiji Yoshida | Kuchijo actor |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Masaharu Kokaji | Producer |
Ryuzo Otani | Producer |