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Directed by Shohei Imamura

The Ballad of Narayama

2h 10m

Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1983 • Japan
Starring Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari

Imbued with the power of myth, Shohei Imamura’s Palme d’Or–winning magnum opus is a stark and stunning vision of a world ruled by the elemental laws of nature and survival. Against the backdrop of the changing seasons, the members of an extended family eke out a hardscrabble existence in the mountainous north of Japan, where local lore decrees that, when they reach the age of seventy, the elderly must be abandoned at the top of a nearby peak to die. As her birthday approaches, sixty-nine-year-old Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) prepares to meet her fate.

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