The Ballad of Narayama

In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?

Cast

Kinuyo Tanaka

Kinuyo Tanaka

Orin

Teiji Takahashi

Teiji Takahashi

Tatsuhei

Yūko Mochizuki

Yūko Mochizuki

Tamayan

Seiji Miyaguchi

Seiji Miyaguchi

Matayan

Yūnosuke Itō

Yūnosuke Itō

Matayan's son

Ken Mitsuda

Teruyan

Danko Ichikawa

Danko Ichikawa

Kesakichi

Keiko Ogasawara

Matsu-yan

Eijirō Tōno

Eijirō Tōno

Messenger

Kō Nishimura

Kō Nishimura

One of the villagers who Teaches Narayama's Manners (uncredited)

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