Set in 19th Century Japan in a small rural village, the film revolves around an old woman who has just turned 69 as she spends the last year of her life to arrange her affairs for her son and others in her family before she is to be carried towards a mountain where she is to die. It is a film that revolves around an old woman who realizes that she is about to reach an age where she can’t be useful despite the fact that she’s still in good health. Shohei Imamura’s screenplay is largely straightforward in its narrative as it plays more into a family of farmers trying to maintain their livelihood in the course of a year as their matriarch Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) realizes she’s set to turn 70 in a year as her eldest son Tatsuhei (Ken Ogata) is a widower with three kids including a baby that needs a mother. Her eldest grandson Kesakichi (Seiji Kurasaki) is already having an affair with a young woman in Matsuyan (Junko Takada) who is from a family of suspected thieves while her youngest son Risuke (Tonpei Hidari) is an oddball known for smelling bad and is still a virgin who is desperate to get laid.
The script also plays into the family coping with poverty and bad luck despite the fact that Tatsuhei would get a wife in a woman named Tamayan (Takejo Aki) from another village as they also deal with politics within the village as well as gossip about the woman’s husband who had disappeared and was ignorant towards the tradition at the village about carrying those who turn 70 to be sent to the mountain top where it would be their final resting place. The script also plays into this village with odd traditions in the way they deal with thieves but also what they do to children when they die because they couldn’t feed it as it has some odd traditions with no sense of logic other than being traditional. Yet, there are also odd things such as a recent widow in Oei (Mitsuko Baisho) who would sleep with other men as a prostitute yet refuses to sleep with Risuke. It would all add to this sense of chaos that forces Orin to settle everything with Tatsuhei having to carry her to the mountain.
Imamura’s direction is definitely entrancing for the way he presents the film in this natural setting as the locations are key to the film as they’re shot on the Niigata and Nagano Prefecture regions in Japan with its vast mountains and fields being its centerpiece. Imamura uses a lot of wide and medium shots to play into the locations but also maintain an intimacy as it relates to the characters at their home no matter how small it is as well as close-ups of the characters but also animals. Imamura would often shoot animals to play up this sense of naturalism as well as an environment that is also unforgiving similar to the way villagers are towards those who threaten their livelihood. Shots featuring snakes eating rats or owls eating a mouse are often shown while Imamura also uses some unique tracking shots to play into how vast the landscape is as much of the film’s first two acts take place in the village and areas around it.
The film also plays into some intense sexuality in the way men crave for it as Risuke is someone that is in need of it despite the fact that he never bathes. Some of it goes into near explicit territory as it plays into the sexual politics of the villagers although the women do have some sense of control when it comes to running the household as it would be something Orin would pass upon towards Tamayan before she goes to the mountains. The film’s third act is about the journey Orin and Tatsuhei as well as revelations about Tatsuhei’s father that the latter reveals as he had been the source of all of the bad luck Orin and her family endured. The journey towards the mountain is a treacherous one as Tatsuhei has to carry Orin on his back as there are elements of surrealism, spiritual imagery, and realism that play into this journey with revelations into what Tatsuhei would have to endure when his time is coming. Overall, Imamura crafts an intoxicating yet wondrous film about a woman settling matters before her son takes her to a mountain where she would die.
Cinematographers Hiroshi Kanazawa, Shigeru Komatsubara, and Masao Tochizawa do incredible work with the film’s cinematography as its emphasis on natural lighting for many of its exterior settings including the usage of low-key artificial lighting for a few of the interior/exterior scenes at night. Editors Toshihiko Kojima, Fusako Matsumoto, Hajime Okayasu, Yoshiko Onodera, and Matsahito Watanabe do excellent work with the editing as it is largely straightforward in its rhythmic cuts while using some stylized slow-motion and odd frame-speeds for some of the surreal and haunting moments. Production designer Goro Kusakabe, along with art directors Hisao Inagaki and Tadataka Yoshino plus set decorators Senki Nakamura and Mitsuto Washizawa, does amazing work with the design of the home that Orin and her family live in as well as the village and the look of the mountaintop for the film’s climax in its eerie detail. Costume designer Kyoto Isho does fantastic work with the costumes as it is largely straightforward with the robes and such that the men and women wear with some of it being ragged as it plays into the struggle the villagers in their environment.
The special effects work of Yoshio Kojima is terrific for some of the film’s minimal effects work for a few scenes in the mountain as it plays into its mystique and ghost-like atmosphere. The sound work of Kenichi Benitani is brilliant for its sound design in the way nature sounds from their locations as well as the usage of natural sounds on location including some eerie moments that play into the suspense and drama. The film’s music by Shin’ichiro Ikebe is phenomenal for its immense music score filled with low-key string and percussive arrangements along with elements of synthesizers and electric bass to create a mood that adds to the sense of the unknown as it relates to spirits along with natural elements that occur throughout the film as it is a major highlight of the film.
The film’s wonderful ensemble cast feature some notable small roles from Norihei Miki as an elderly salt dealer that Orin knows who tells him about Tamayan, Akio Yokoyama as a neighbor who is suspected of theft, Sachie Shimura as the neighbor’s wife also suspected of theft, Ryutaro Tatsumi as an old neighbor, Kaoru Shimamori as Tatsuhei’s young son Tomekichi, Shoichi Ozawa as a village elder who is the head of the village, Niijiko Kiyokawa as female villager whom Orin bargains with as it relates to Risuke, and Mitsuko Baisho as a recent widow in Oei who had been frustrated with her husband as she chooses to become a prostitute. Junko Takada is superb as Matsuyan who is in a relationship with Kesakichi as she would become part of his family though Orin feels she is crowding things as she is associated with a family accused of theft. Seiji Kurasaki is fantastic as Tatsuhei’s eldest son Kesakichi as a young man who is in love although he is pondering her role for the family.
Tonpei Hidari is excellent as Tatsuhei’s younger brother Risuke as a virginal villager who smells terribly as he is also desperate to lose his virginity while being this oddball in the community. Takejo Aki is brilliant as Tamayan as a widow that Tatsuhei would marry as she helps the family out while also learning a secret from Orin that would help the family. Sumiko Sakamoto is amazing as Orin as the family matriarch who is about to turn 70 as she decides to settle all of her business before she goes to the mountain as well as deal with gossip and stories about her as there’s a gracefulness to her performance. Finally, there’s Ken Ogata in an incredible performance as Tatsuhei as Orin’s eldest son who is trying to run the family household while also aware of the role he has to play for his mother while also dealing with issues relating to his late father whom he wasn’t fond of as well as the terror of his journey at the mountains.
The Ballad of Narayama is a tremendous film from Shohei Imamura. Featuring a great ensemble cast, gorgeous visuals, a grounded setting, a study of loss and facing death, evocative sound work, and a rich music score by Shin’ichiro Ikebe. It is a film that explores a family having to let their matriarch go with her eldest son doing a task that is deemed traditional as he is forced to face his own journey. In the end, The Ballad of Narayama is a spectacular film from Shohei Imamura.
Related: The Ballad of Narayama (1958 film)
Shohei Imamura Films: (Stolen Desire) – (Nishi Ginza Station) – (Endless Desire) – (My Second Brother) – (Pigs and Battleship) – (The Insect Woman) – (Unholy Desire) – (The Pornographers) – (A Man Vanishes) – (The Profound Desire of the Gods) – (History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess) – (Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute) – (Vengeance is Mine (1979 film)) – (Eijanaika) – (Zegen) – (Black Rain (1989 film)) – (The Eel) – (Dr. Akagi) – (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge) – 11’09”01-September 11-Japan
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