The Ballad of Narayama

What is the Meaning of Life ... or Death?
Quite a few Asian films - Korean, Japanese, Chinese - explore the meaning of old age and specifically the cycle of life. This is one of the great themes of this film. The essential fact of this movie is that, through custom (and religion), the parents who reach age 70 are to leave the society and meet their end on the top of the Mountain Narayama. In a sense, it is both frightening and sacred. The cycle of life continues with the younger generation.

Everyone who sees this provocative movie will talk about its striking visual beauty. But more importantly, it strikes a nerve - how should society allocate its scarce resources. Ironically, the fact that the old are left to die by exposure is not necessarily a statement that the elders are not valued by the society. The old are valued...but they need to recognize their function in letting the young take their place. The act of death, therefore, becomes a sacred rite. This is very vividly presented in the last frames...

A Brutal and Beautiful Tale of Old Age
This is the more beautiful of two adaptations of the same story. Director Keisuke Kinoshita used traditional Japanese Kabuki theater as visual inspiration for a stunning story of generational tension in a small village (the other adaptation of this story is the far more realistic and brutal The Ballad of Narayama ).

The plot involves three generations of a household: the aged Orin who is the matriarch of the household, her son Tatsuhei, and his son--a completely self-absorbed teenager--Kesakichi. The village tradition dictates that elderly parents are carried into the mountains and left there to die, so that the younger generations have a better chance to survive.

However this family problematizes tradition because Orin is in great health, as evidenced by her full set of teeth. Orin is eager to carry out the tradition, counting down the days until her trip to Narayama. But her son, Tatsuhei,...

(4.5 stars) "The Ballad of Narayama" is a beautiful, well-acted and also a heartbreaking film from filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita
A long time ago in Japan, there was a custom practiced in poor and mountainous regions during a time of drought or famine. That practice is known as "Ubasute", in which a relative carries an elderly family member to the mountain or a remote, desolate area to be left there to die.

Because of the tough times and families were struggling to feed everyone, it was a custom that was mandated by feudal officials.

And the custom has been featured in Japanese folklore passed down from generation after generation. Songs about a relative carrying an elderly on their back, while the elderly would snap twigs, so the relative will no how to get back home.

The practice of Ubasute would be explored in the 1958 film "The Ballad of Narayama" (Narayama bushiko), written and directed by Keisuke Kinoshita ("Twenty-Four Eyes", "Morning for the Osone Family", "The River Fuefuki", to name a few).

The film was remade in 1983 by director Shohei Imamura, who showed...

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