The Ballad of Narayama

Director Shohei Imamura has produced a number of well-known and newsworthy films with a vitality-filled touch that pierces the humanity lurking deep within the Japanese heart. This film, a joint production by Toei and his own Imamura Productions, is a drama of the soul that seeks the essence of universal human themes: life and death, and parent and child relationships. Based on a masterpiece by Shichiro Fukazawa that won him the 1956 Chuo Koron Best New Author prize, and set in a poor village deep in the Shinshu mountain range, the film tells the story of a son who must carry his mother on his back after she turns 70 and abandon her near the summit of Mount Narayama on a snowy day in accordance with the local laws -- a bloodcurdling tale of how people face their death as they live with such gruesome local customs. Director Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 film adaptation was a major hit.