The Ballad of Narayama
(Narayama-bushi Ko)
The Original Japanese Poster.
Directed byKeisuke Kinoshita
Written byKeisuke Kinoshita
Based onNarayama-bushi kō
by Shichirō Fukazawa
Produced by
  • Masaharu Kokaji
  • Ryuzo Otani
Starring
CinematographyHiroyuki Kusuda
Edited byYoshi Sugihara
Music by
  • Chūji Kinoshita
  • Matsunosuke Nozawa
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku (Japan)
Release date
  • 1 June 1958 (1958-06-01) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
98 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考, Narayama-bushi kō) is a 1958 Japanese historical drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. It is based on the 1956 novella of the same name by Shichirō Fukazawa.[1][2][3] The film explores the legendary practice of ubasute, in which elderly people were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die.

Cast

Reception

The film was shown in competition at the 19th Venice International Film Festival, where it divided critics between those who thought it a masterpiece and those who thought it poor.[4]

In a June 1961 review in The New York Times, A.H. Weiler called the film "an odd and colorful evocation of Japan's past that is only occasionally striking", adding that it was "stylized and occasionally graphic fare in the manner of the Kabuki Theatre" and "decidedly strange to Western tastes."[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film a maximum four stars, and added it to his Great Movies list in 2013, making it the final film he added to the list before his death.[6]

Restoration

During the 2012 Cannes Film Festival,[7] a digitally restored version of the film was screened out of competition, as part of the festival's Cannes Classics selections.[8]

In his 2013 review of the Criterion Blu-ray release of the restored film, Jordan Cronk of Slant stated that Kinoshita, a "less celebrated" practitioner in the jidaigeki genre, used kabuki theater "as a stylistic blueprint" for his adaptation of the literary source, making it "one of the era's most radical experiments" which played "more like a cinematic elegy than cosmetic theater."[7]

Awards

The Ballad of Narayama received three Mainichi Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Film Score.[9] It was submitted as the Japanese entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not chosen as one of the five nominees.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 "楢山節考". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 "楢山節考(1958)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  3. ↑ O'Donoghue, Darragh (February 2013). "Ballad of Narayama". Cinémathèque Annotations on Film (66). Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  4. ↑ Hawkins, Robert H (17 September 1958). "Venice's Annual Crop of Controversies; Press Divided on 'Film Morality' Issue". Variety. p. 10.
  5. ↑ Weiler, A.H. (20 June 1961). "Taken From Japanese Legend: Ballad of Narayama is Stylized and Occasionally Graphic". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Ebert, Roger (7 March 2013). "THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 Cronk, Jordan (8 February 2013). "Ballad of Narayama". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "Cannes Classics 2012". Cannes Film Festival (in French). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  9. ↑ "毎日映画コンクール 第13回（1958年）". Mainichi (in Japanese). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  10. ↑ "List of Japanese films nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film" (in Japanese). Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
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