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The Ballad of Narayama

7.5 98 mins Drama   1958
Shochiku  
Director(s): Keisuke Kinoshita

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?

Casts of The Ballad of Narayama

Kinuyo Tanaka

as Orin

Teiji Takahashi

as Tatsuhei

Yūko Mochizuki

as Tamayan

Seiji Miyaguchi

as Matayan

Yūnosuke Itō

as Matayan's son

Ken Mitsuda

as Teruyan

Danko Ichikawa

as Kesakichi

Keiko Ogasawara

as Matsu-yan

Eijirō Tōno

as Messenger

Kō Nishimura

as One of the villagers who Teaches Narayama's Manners (uncredited)

Katsuyuki Hattori

as Tatsuhei's son (uncredited)

Tokuji Kobayashi

as One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)

Masao Oda

as One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners (uncredited)

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