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The Ballad of Narayama

The Ballad of Narayama

1958, Movie, 1h 38min

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.

Country: Japan

Director:

Keisuke Kinoshita

Cast:

Seiji Miyaguchi,

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The Criterion Channel

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Ratings

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IMDb rating

Critic rating

Average critic rating

10.0

Reviews

Critic Roger Ebert

rated

10

...a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty.

Read full review at Roger Ebert

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Some movies that have similar genres and were produced around the same time as The Ballad of Narayama include To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men, The 400 Blows, I Live in Fear, Uncle Hyacynth, Nightmare in Red China.