The Ballad of Narayama (1983)

Ken Ogata: Tatsuhei

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tatsuhei : Mom! I really liked your big, rocklike teeth.

• Kesakichi : You made Matsu-yan go to the Amaya's! Why? Why did you make her go there? Granny, you murdered her! Damn you! Demon hag!

  Tatsuhei : Mom. Why didn't you tell me? Mom...

  Orin : This winter... I'm going to the mountain. My mother went to the mountain, as did the mother-in-law of our home. So I have to go too. It's tough living here. If I go to the mountain, I'll see Matsu-yan. I'm going to see Matsu-yan.

  Tamayan : It's all right. There's one less mouth to feed, and the rat is dead too. We'll make it through the winter.

• Tatsuhei : Like I said last night, you only have to endure one night... What would become of us if he had killed Harumatsu? We're in for a rough winter. What if he ruins our paddies? You do understand. Please, let him have you, just for one night. I can't ask others to take care of Stinker for free. I don't have any potatoes.

  Tamayan : And who lost the potatoes in the lottery?

  Tatsuhei : I know you don't want to... but please tough it out...

  Tamayan : Shut up! I heard you the first time!

• Kesakichi : Orin of Nekko, at the corner of the shed... bared 33 of her demon teeth.

  Tatsuhei : Kesa! Your grandma's teeth are demon's teeth, are they? Bastard! Ingrate! And after all your Grandma does for you! Jackass! No supper for you!

• Tatsuhei : You really don't know why Dad went away?

  Orin : That year you were fifteen, and Risuke was five. We had a bad harvest... That year, we sold my newborn daughter to the salt-dealer. Rihei's mother had just turned my age, 69. It was time for her to go to Narayama. It was one bad thing after another. Rihei became depressed. He couldn't carry his mother to the mountain. The law is the law. Pity gets you nowhere. He acted like he was the only one suffering, and ran away. He shamed us in front of the entire village. You will too, probably...

  Tatsuhei : I'm different. I'm not like my dad.

  Orin : I wonder.

• Tatsuhei : When I was 15, Dad and I went hunting bear. On our way home, I killed him. It was right here. I told him that he should carry granny to the mountain. He said, 'what do you know?' And suddenly became very angry. We got in a fight, and I shot him. I buried him there.

  Orin : Tatsuhei. I loved Rihei, but he shamed us in front of the entire village. It wasn't you that killed him. It was the mountain god. Don't ever tell anyone. Understand?

• Zeniya no Tadayan : Old Orin of Nekko, at the corner of the shed... bared 33 of her demon teeth.

  Tatsuhei : Why don't you just come to our house? Why don't you just come over and count how many teeth my mother has?

  Zeniya no Tadayan : Hey, Tatsu-yan. I meant no offense. I'm just copying your son Kesa-yan's song.

  Tatsuhei : Kesakichi was singing that?

  Zeniya no Tadayan : That's right.

• Tatsuhei : Our ancestors have come here for hundreds of years... to go to the mountain. Hundreds of them, thousands... maybe more. In about 25 years... I'll come here, carried on Kesa's back. Then about 25 years after that, it will be Kesa's turn. I guess that's the way it goes. They say the god of the mountain waits for us up there, but I wonder if that's true. If he's really there, then let him make snow, just like in the song.