The ballad of Narayama
By: director, Keisuke Kinoshita
Contributors: Fukasawa, Shichirō, 1914-1987; Tanaka, Kinuyo, 1909-1977; Takahashi, Teiji, 1926-1959; Mochizuki, Yuko, 1917-1977; Image Entertainment (Firm)
Series: Criterion collection -- 645; Criterion collection
Publisher: Distributed by Image Entertainment
Published: 2013
Place of publication: United States]
Language: jpn
Format: [videorecording] /
Number of pages: 98
ISBN-13: 9781604656986
Subjects: Drama; Sacrifice; Starvation; Older people
Work titles: Narayamabushi kō (Motion picture : 1958)
Description: This haunting, kabuki-inflected version of a Japanese folk legend is set in a remote mountain village, where food is scarce and tradition dictates that citizens who have reached their seventieth year must be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. The sacrificial elder at the center of the tale is Orin, a dignified and dutiful woman who spends her dwindling days securing the happiness of her loyal widowed son with a respectable new wife.
Notes: Title from web page.

Based on the novel, Narayamabushi kō, by Shichirō Fukazawa.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1958.

Special features: trailer and teaser ; booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp.

Cinematography, Hiroshi Kusuda ; editor, Yoshi Sugihara ; music, Rokuzaemon Kineya, Matsunosuke Nozawa.

Kinuyo Tanaka, Teiji Takahashi, Yuko Mochizuki.

Not rated.

DVD, widescreen (2.35:1) presentation; PCM mono.

Japanese dialogue; English subtitles.