is a

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

by director

Shōhei Imamura was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...

. It stars

Sumiko Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and award-winning actress, born in Osaka, whose heartfelt performances made her a favorite of the late film director Shohei Imamura. Imamura cast her in three of his films: ''The Pornographers'', ''Warm Water Under a Red Bri ...

as Orin, Ken Ogata, and Shoichi Ozawa. It is an adaptation of the book ''Narayama bushikō'' by Shichirō Fukazawa and slightly inspired by the 1958 film directed by

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi an ...

. Both films explore the legendary practice of ''

ubasute is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India’s ...

'', in which elderly people were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die. Imamura's film won the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

''The Ballad of Narayama'' was filmed in

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

and

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

Plot

The film is set in a small rural village in Japan in the 19th century. According to tradition, once a person reaches the age of 70 he or she must travel to a remote mountain to die of starvation, a practice known as

. The story concerns Orin, who is 69 and of sound health, but notes that a neighbor had to drag his father to the mountain, so she resolves to avoid clinging to life beyond her term. She spends a year arranging all the affairs of her family and village: she severely punishes a family who are hoarding food, and helps her younger son lose his virginity. The film has some harsh scenes that show how brutal the conditions could be for the villagers. Interspersed between episodes in the film are brief vignettes of nature – birds, snakes, and other animals hunting, watching, singing, copulating or giving birth.

Cast

* Ken Ogata – Tatsuhei *

– Orin * Tonpei Hidari – Risuke * Aki Takejo – Tamayan * Shoichi Ozawa – Katsuzō *

Fujio Tokita Fujio (written: 正行, 藤雄, 藤夫, 不二夫, 富士雄, 冨士夫, 富士夫, 富士男, 希仁男 or ふじを, ふじお in hiragana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Mon ...

– Jinsaku *

Sanshō Shinsui was a Japanese actor. Biography Shinsui's ex-wife was Midori Hagio. His older brother was director and actor Ryusaku Shinsui. Shinsui once belonged to Tokyo Kid Brothers. After he left that, he launched the theatrical troupe Mr. Slim Company i ...

– Zeniya no Matayan * Seiji Kurasaki – Kesakichi * Junko Takada – Matsuyan * Mitsuko Baisho – Oei * Taiji Tonoyama – Teruyan * Casey Takamine – Arayashiki * Nenji Kobayashi – Tsune * Nijiko Kiyokawa – Okane * Akio Yokoyama – Amaya

Box office

Upon its Japanese release in 1983, the film earned in

distributor rentals A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is freq ...

and in gross receipts, equivalent to ticket sales. Overseas, the film sold tickets in the Soviet Union, 844,077 tickets in France upon release in 1983, and 1,696 tickets in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain between 1996 and 2018, for a combined estimated total of approximately tickets sold worldwide.

Awards

*Cannes Film Festival (1983) **Palme d'Or * Japan Academy Film Prize (1984) **Best Actor Ken Ogata **Best Film **Best Sound Kenichi Benitani *

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

(1984) **Best Actor Ken Ogata * Excellence in Cinematography Award (1984): Masao Tochizawa * Hochi Film Award (1983) **Best Supporting Actress Mitsuko Baisho ** Mainichi Film Concours (1984) **Best Actor ( Ken Ogata) **Best Sound Recording: Kenichi Benitani

Anecdote

In early 2000s, the movie had a chance to be released in China, on condition that the sex scenes were censored. The director Imamura consulted some Chinese directors. They replied that the sex scenes were necessary contrast to the scenes of death. Imamura decided to turn down the proposal.''China Times'' (中國時報) in Taipei. Date unknown.

Home media

''The Ballad of Narayama'' was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in May 2010. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as the theatrical trailer.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad of Narayama, The Japanese comedy-drama films Films directed by Shohei Imamura 1983 films 1983 comedy-drama films Remakes of Japanese films Palme d'Or winners 1980s Japanese-language films Films set in the 19th century Films set in Japan Toei Company films Picture of the Year Japan Academy Prize winners Films based on Japanese novels Films about death 1983 comedy films 1983 drama films 1980s Japanese films