I found this Japanese film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I read the description of the story and found the title intriguing, and I hoped it would deserve four stars out of five critics give it. Basically in a small rural village in 19th century Japan, according to tradition, once a man or woman reaches the age of 70 they must go through a practise known as ubasute, where they will travel to a remote mountain to die of starvation. The story follows 69-year- old Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) and in sound health of course, but she knows that a neighbour father had to be dragged up the mountain by his son. Orin resolves to avoid clinging onto life beyond her term and spending a year arranging all her family affairs and the village for when she passes away. These include Orin severely punishing a family who are hoarding food, and helping her younger son lose his virginity, but in the end she ultimately faces up to tradition and is taken up the mountain. Also starring Ken Ogata as Tatsuhei, Tonpei Hidari as Risuke "Smelly", Aki Takejô as Tamayan, Shôichi Ozawa as Katsuzô / Shozo, Sanshô Shinsui as Zeniya no Tadayan, Seiji Kurasaki as Kesakichi and Junko Takada as Matsuyan. The story is interesting with harsh moments with the subjects of rape, famine, mortality, birth and death, throughout it all there also cutaways to the natural world, with animals, ultimately it is about trying to evade the final journey, I may have lost track slightly, but overall it is a splendid drama. Good!
Review of The Ballad of Narayama
