The Ballad of Narayama

98 mins
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?

Yūnosuke Itō

Matayan's son

Eijirō Tōno

Messenger

Kō Nishimura

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

Katsuyuki Hattori

Tatsuhei's son (uncredited)

Tokuji Kobayashi

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

Masao Oda

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

Shûzô Horikawa

Sound Mixer

Hisao Ōno

Sound Recordist

Hideo Nishizaki

Sound Recordist

Mototsugu Komaki

Set Decoration

Chūji Kinoshita

Original Music Composer

Matsunosuke Nozawa

Original Music Composer

Chiyoo Umeda

Art Direction

Hiroshi Kusuda

Director of Photography

Yoshikazu Ōtsuki

Assistant Director

Toshikazu Sugiyama

Costume Design

Genzô Furumiya

Set Designer

Ryuzo Otani

Producer

Kisaku Ito

Production Design

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