BALLAD OF NARAYAMA - DVD-CRITERION COLLECTION

Details

• Release Year: 1958
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: 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.
• Cast: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Aki Takejô, Shôichi Ozawa, Fujio Tokita, Sanshô Shinsui, Seiji Kurasaki, Junko Takada, Mitsuko Baishô, Taiji Tonoyama, Casey Takamine, Nenji Kobayashi, Nijiko Kiyokawa, Akio Yokoyama, Kaoru Shimamori, Yukie Shimura, Masami Okamoto, Ben Hiura, Norihei Miki, Kansai Eto, Ryutaro Tatsumi, Shôhei Imamura, Shichirô Fukazawa
• Director: Shôhei Imamura
• Runtime: 1:38
• Company: Shochiku
• Media Format: Movie