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The Ballad of Narayama

123 statements
23 feature instances
4 referencing feature instances

The Ballad of Narayama	type	TVTItem
The Ballad of Narayama	label	The Ballad of Narayama
The Ballad of Narayama	page	TheBalladOfNarayama
The Ballad of Narayama	comment	The Ballad of Narayama is a 1958 film from Japan, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.It is about the ancient and probably mythical Japanese practice of "obasute", in which the elderly were abandoned on a mountainside to die when they reached 70 years old. Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka) has the bad luck to be approaching her 70th birthday in a medieval Japanese village, where, due to the extremely narrow margin between life and starvation, the custom is practiced quite aggressively. Once Orin takes care of her last bit of family business, arranging for her 45-year-old widower son Tatsuhei to marry again, she is quite willing to take the one-way trip up nearby Mount Narayama. How willing is she? Orin has all her teeth, so to look more like a toothless old crone ready to die, she knocks out her own front teeth by smashing them against a grinding stone. In fact, the only people who don't want Orin to kill herself are Tatsuhei and his new wife Tama, who are very upset at the prospect.The 1958 film was the last movie Roger Ebert added to his Great Movies list before Ebert died in 2013. In 1983 it was re-made by director Shohei Imamura under the same title. That version won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
The Ballad of Narayama	fetched	2024-03-05T15:29:41Z
The Ballad of Narayama	parsed	2024-03-05T15:29:41Z
The Ballad of Narayama	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Ballad of Narayama / int_126ce03c	type	I Was Quite a Looker
The Ballad of Narayama / int_126ce03c	comment	I Was Quite a Looker: The narrator does this on behalf of Orin, singing that "She was the beauty of the village as a young bride."
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_21bde5e8	type	The Tooth Hurts
The Ballad of Narayama / int_21bde5e8	comment	The Tooth Hurts: The scene where Orin knocks out her teeth against a grindstone is deeply disturbing.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_21d70919	type	Crapsack World
The Ballad of Narayama / int_21d70919	comment	Crapsack World: Is it bad when old people are schlepped up a mountain after they turn 70 and left there to become food for crows? Yes. Is it bad when the villagers not only kill a man for stealing food, but also kill his entire family of 12? Yes, yes it is.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_396e1c2a	type	Face Death with Dignity
The Ballad of Narayama / int_396e1c2a	comment	Face Death with Dignity: Maybe too much dignity from Orin, who is way too cool with freezing to death on a mountainside. Definitely averted with her friend Mata, who has also crossed the magic 70-years-old mark, goes around the village begging for food after his son stops feeding him, and eventually has to be tied up and dragged to Narayama by his asshole son.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_3eee0728	type	Captain Obvious
The Ballad of Narayama / int_3eee0728	comment	Captain Obvious: "When three years pass, we get three years older."
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_49f20c6a	type	Gory Discretion Shot
The Ballad of Narayama / int_49f20c6a	comment	Gory Discretion Shot: In the 1958 film, the camera mercifully cuts away just as Orin is about to smash her face against her grinding stone so that when she is carried to Narayama, she no longer has a full set of 28 teeth. The next time we see her, she is missing several top front teeth and has a mouthful of blood. The 1983 film is not so discreet.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_4f6cf75	type	Mirroring Factions
The Ballad of Narayama / int_4f6cf75	comment	Mirroring Factions: Seemingly the message behind the shot of the train pulling into the station called "Obasute" at the end—that modern-day folks neglect their elders as well.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_52989fee	type	Narrator
The Ballad of Narayama / int_52989fee	comment	Narrator: Plays the samisen while commenting on the action.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_55180ce	type	Snow Means Death
The Ballad of Narayama / int_55180ce	comment	Snow Means Death: It certainly signals game over when the first snow of the season starts falling just after Tatsuhei drops his mother off on the mountainside to die.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_5bdcc85a	type	Disney Villain Death
The Ballad of Narayama / int_5bdcc85a	comment	Disney Villain Death: Mata fights going up the mountain so hard that his son eventually throws him off the cliff. This enrages Tatsuhei, just back from dropping off his own mother. They fight, and Mata's son eventually goes plunging off the cliff as well.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_63389b0b	type	Kids Are Cruel
The Ballad of Narayama / int_63389b0b	comment	Kids Are Cruel: Jeering "Orin the crone!" at poor Orin after she smashes her teeth out certainly qualifies.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_92dfffae	type	Retraux
The Ballad of Narayama / int_92dfffae	comment	Retraux: The whole movie is staged in the manner of an old kabuki theater play, starting with a masked joruri who introduces the story, and continuing on with a narrator who comments on the action while playing a samisen. Additionally, the film is shot on obvious stages with obviously painted backdrops; several scene transitions are achieved via dropping the backgrounds while the set in the foreground splits in half, with the two halves being pulled out of shot in opposite directions.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_93789581	type	Elder Abuse
The Ballad of Narayama / int_93789581	comment	Elder Abuse: Jesus. You see, once they reach 70, the elderly are taken to a mountain to die, however, Orin invokes this more directly, as she tries to make it seem like she has a reason to be left up there (as she's healthier than the usual ones) but her son is less inclined to carry on that practice.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_93deab19	type	Ominous Fog
The Ballad of Narayama / int_93deab19	comment	Ominous Fog: Sets the mood as Tatsuhei, at the insistence of his mother and practically everyone else, carries her up the mountain.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_a2d1661a	type	HappilyArrangedMarriage
The Ballad of Narayama / int_a2d1661a	comment	Happily Arranged Marriage: Tatsuhei is nervous about his mother setting him up with a complete stranger from a different village. But he and Tama hit it off, possibly because she's the only person in town who supports his desire to keep his mother alive.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_b504613c	type	Don't Look Back
The Ballad of Narayama / int_b504613c	comment	Don't Look Back: One of the three rules about leaving your elders on a mountainside to die, which it turns out is quite the ceremony. After ditching Grandma, you are to go directly back without looking behind. Tatsuhei violates this in the end.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_c59bf35a	type	Ballad of X
The Ballad of Narayama / int_c59bf35a	comment	Ballad of X
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_d028ca10	type	Deliberately Monochrome
The Ballad of Narayama / int_d028ca10	comment	Deliberately Monochrome: The surprising coda. After the story is over we're treated to a brief epilogue in black and white, and in the modern day, which shows a train pulling into a station. The station is called "Obasute".
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_dbfd6b8	type	Lyrical Dissonance
The Ballad of Narayama / int_dbfd6b8	comment	Lyrical Dissonance: The cheery tune the villagers sing about leaving old people on the mountain to die.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_e529d5c3	type	Torches and Pitchforks
The Ballad of Narayama / int_e529d5c3	comment	Torches and Pitchforks: The whole town forms such a posse when Amaya, a particularly hungry villager with a large family, is caught stealing food.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
The Ballad of Narayama / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: Just about everyone in the town, but Orin's asshole grandson Kesakichi is the absolute worst. He can't wait for his grandma to bite the dust. He makes up a nasty song mocking Orin for still having all her teeth, because that's evidently a bad thing.
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The Ballad of Narayama / int_f3da74ff	type	Creepy Crows
The Ballad of Narayama / int_f3da74ff	comment	Creepy Crows: They lurk around the bone-strewn mountain clearing, for obvious reasons.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Ballad of Narayama	hasFeature	Ballad of X / int_99b2088e
The Ballad of Narayama	hasFeature	Dyeing for Your Art / int_99b2088e
The Ballad of Narayama	hasFeature	Elder Abuse / int_99b2088e
The Ballad of Narayama	hasFeature	Retraux / int_99b2088e

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