"The ballad of Narayama" (1983, Shohei Imamura) is about the custom (called "ubasute" in Japanese) that at reaching the age of 70 parents are carried up a mountain by their eldest son in order to die at the top of that mountain.
There have been times in which "ubasute" was existing practice in some areas of Japan, but it is mostly known as the subject of mythology. I have seen two adaptations of "The ballad of Narayama". The adaptation of Keisuke Kinoshita from 1958 is more close to "ubasute" as a myth. The adaptation of Shohei Imamura from 1983 treats it more as a real existing practice from the past.
According to one review I read the central theme of the film is the way a society thinks about death. In Western societies death has become highly medicalized and as a result less visible (still according to the above mentioned review). In the Japan of the Middle Ages death was much more a simple fact of life.
I am not convinced by this interpretation. In my view the film is not so much about how elderly people die, but how they live and how society thinks about this group of people that inevitably are less productive then they once were.
The film is situated in the Middle Ages and the central problem is food. Society simply cannot afford a large group of people that eat more food than they can produce. Lets not think however that in modern times we have outgrown such Malthusian lines of reasoning. This kind of discussions come back again and again, but always in a slightly modified form. Ten years ago it was not about food but about money. How can society finance a growing group of retirees that are getting older and older. In recent times of the Corona pandemic there are fierce discussions about the claim elderly and vulnerable people are making on the health care system. In this way the theme of the film remains its topicality.
There have been times in which "ubasute" was existing practice in some areas of Japan, but it is mostly known as the subject of mythology. I have seen two adaptations of "The ballad of Narayama". The adaptation of Keisuke Kinoshita from 1958 is more close to "ubasute" as a myth. The adaptation of Shohei Imamura from 1983 treats it more as a real existing practice from the past.
According to one review I read the central theme of the film is the way a society thinks about death. In Western societies death has become highly medicalized and as a result less visible (still according to the above mentioned review). In the Japan of the Middle Ages death was much more a simple fact of life.
I am not convinced by this interpretation. In my view the film is not so much about how elderly people die, but how they live and how society thinks about this group of people that inevitably are less productive then they once were.
The film is situated in the Middle Ages and the central problem is food. Society simply cannot afford a large group of people that eat more food than they can produce. Lets not think however that in modern times we have outgrown such Malthusian lines of reasoning. This kind of discussions come back again and again, but always in a slightly modified form. Ten years ago it was not about food but about money. How can society finance a growing group of retirees that are getting older and older. In recent times of the Corona pandemic there are fierce discussions about the claim elderly and vulnerable people are making on the health care system. In this way the theme of the film remains its topicality.