A Japanese classic which mixes traditional kabuki elements – overtly artificial, theatrical sets, a narration sung in Japanese folk style – and cinematic techniques, The Ballad of Narayama portrays a Japanese village so short of food that old people are expected to go up the nearby mountain and die. The film’s power rests in the domestic drama which unfolds as the greedy, grasping members of a family clash with the more selfless, and particularly on an incredibly moving performance from Kinuyo Tanaka as Orin, an old woman resigned to accept – even embrace – her fate.


For Western audiences, at least, the film’s apparent sympathies must be deeply unsettling as, while the village’s barbaric custom towards its old folk is regretted, set against the pitiful, shaming behaviour of an old man who refuses to leave and die, Orin’s self-sacrifice, while mourned, is celebrated and implicitly endorsed.