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The Ballad of Narayama (1958)

Original title: Narayama bushikô · Turkish title: Narayama Türküsü

“With my mother on my back, now is the time to say goodbye to this world.”

1958 · 1 h 38 min
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita

Cast

Kinuyo Tanaka Teiji Takahashi Yūko Mochizuki

Credits

Written by: Shichirô Fukazawa

Plot

In a poor mountain village, the custom is for the old to be carried to the mountain to die at seventy. An old woman prepares herself.

Sinekatalog’s take

Keisuke Kinoshita's stylised drama follows an old woman preparing to be carried to the mountain to die. Shot like Kabuki theatre on painted sets, it is a heartbreaking, beautiful and severe fable of duty and love.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 7.8 / 10 (4,211 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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