Living Close to the Earth

The Ballad of Narayama opens on a winter scene among the mountains of northern Japan and a title informs us that the action is taking place 100 years ago. The story centers around Tatsuhei (Ken Ogata), a widower in his mid-forties, and his family and isolated village. The villagers lead an existence of bare subsistence through their meager crops and hunting and gathering in the neighboring forest. Their poverty forces them into an almost purely pragmatic way of life and this is the central theme of the film.

Tatsuhei's mother, in her sixty-ninth year, makes it clear that she expects to be taken soon to Mount Narayama. Among a people living so close to the edge, there is no room for unproductive mouths to feed. Young male babies are often abandoned and many young girls are "sold to the salt dealer." The old are taken to Mount Narayama and left to die. The old woman has resolved that her time has come, but her son is reluctant to make the trip.

The film is based on the writings of Shichiro Fukazawa and presents an incredibly believable picture of the daily life of the village. This is clearly not a romanticized look at the joys of simple living. Much of what we see as the superior virtues of earlier times are shown here to be necessities. When a family is found to be stealing food from others in the village, the harsh penalty they receive is not dictated by a code or law, but by the inability of the hungry villagers to tolerate any losses to their slim larders.

Throughout the film Tatsuhei is haunted by the ghost of his father, who disappeared when Tatsuhei was fifteen. The father was seen as cowardly and Tatsuhei is sensitive to the others' taunts that he is much the same.

The Ballad of Narayama won the Grand Prix at Cannes and it is easy to see why. With its unique combination of poetry and vibrancy, this film provides an unforgettable experience.

-- Robert Stewart