--- title: "The Ballad of Narayama" year: 1983 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-narayama" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-16T14:07:25.330337+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T14:07:41.958724+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Ballad of Narayama (1983) Directed by Shōhei Imamura · 2h 10m · Drama **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 71 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* A mother prepares to be abandoned, but apparently the family still needs organising > Shōhei Imamura’s *The Ballad of Narayama* is a harsh, moving drama, carried by Sumiko Sakamoto’s unsentimental performance. The comparisons between villagers and animals grow insistent, but the family’s predicament deserves the attention the film asks of us. ## Synopsis In a remote mountain village, Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto), her son Tatsuhei (Ken Ogata) and Risuke (Tonpei Hidari) live under a custom that requires the elderly to be abandoned. Widowed Orin prepares for her departure by putting her family’s affairs in order, while Tatsuhei faces the obligations the tradition places on him. Gossip, sex and violence occupy the village alongside these household preparations; people still have daily needs, whatever the custom demands. Orin continues to look after her family as she prepares to leave it, with affection and dependence complicating a practice the community accepts as part of life. ## Review Shōhei Imamura’s *The Ballad of Narayama* is a harsh, moving film, worth the effort its cruelty asks of us. In a remote mountain village, the elderly are abandoned by custom, and a widow prepares for what her community regards as the proper course of things. He gives her family’s needs as much attention as the rule that threatens to remove her from it. That attention matters: the village has ordinary business to conduct, and its inhabitants do not suspend their appetites because we might find their customs appalling. Sumiko Sakamoto makes Orin’s preparations compelling because her practical concern for her family is so difficult to separate from her acceptance of the custom. We were horrified by her continuing to look after people while preparing to be abandoned herself. The care remains ordinary, which makes it harder to watch than a performance built around declarations of suffering. Ken Ogata, as her son Tatsuhei, keeps the family relationship close enough for the impending obligation to hurt. Around them, gossip, sex and violence keep the village busy, and Shōhei Imamura allows room for humour that can be difficult to welcome. These people have desires and grievances beyond the fate of one elderly woman, which prevents the film from becoming a solemn procession towards a lesson. The sexual frankness helps: it makes the community seem physically alive, however harsh its rules. Rural dramas can make hardship look morally improving; these villagers remain capable of doing appalling things to one another. Masao Tochizawa’s cinematography makes the surrounding nature forcefully present, so that the villagers never seem detached from the animals whose behaviour the film keeps setting beside theirs. Its beauty is also a risk: the picturesque views occasionally make hardship too agreeable to look at. Gorô Kusakabe’s production design is more useful to the drama when it supports the ordinary business of village life. The family preparations need a home we can believe in, and that part of the film persuades. The editing, credited to Masahito Watanabe, Fusako Matsumoto, Hajime Okayasu, Yoshiko Onodera and Toshihiko Kojima, gives all this behaviour plenty of room. At 130 minutes, the film does linger too long over parallels between human appetites and animal life, once we have understood the connection. Shinichiro Ikebe’s music helps sustain the seriousness of Orin’s preparations amid the gossip and sexual activity. The strongest passages need only Orin’s preparations and the family’s response; the wider observations occasionally delay our return to them. There is a danger in placing human cruelty so close to animal behaviour: a custom can start to look like something nobody could change. Shōhei Imamura sometimes pushes us towards that conclusion, and we resist it. Yet Orin’s care for her family keeps the drama from turning into a lecture about survival, because kindness is part of this village too. That is why the film remains moving after its comparisons have become familiar. Give it an evening when comfort is not the chief requirement. *Fi1m score 82, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond favourably to Imamura’s harsh account of village life, praising its force, craft and refusal to soften the customs it depicts. The strongest notices find that its close attention to rural society does not come at the expense of dramatic involvement. Praise clusters around the direction, the performances and the treatment of human behaviour alongside animal life. Several reviews also value the unsettling shifts between brutality, humour and contemplation. The reservations range from length and accessibility to a more fundamental objection about style. Even sympathetic critics describe an experience whose cruelty can make it difficult to approach, while one finds it slightly overlong. The New York Times supplies the sole negative assessment, arguing that the picturesque imagery weakens the intended austerity despite strong performances. The spread is therefore wide, though the disagreement centres more on how the village is presented than on the quality of the acting. ### Reviews we read (6) - **Time Out** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film awe-inspiring in its depiction of a widow preparing for ritual death while tending to her family's needs in a remote village. He singles out the shocking humour and immediacy with which Imamura challenges viewers on the humanity of this society versus our own. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-ballad-of-narayama) - **Sight and Sound**, Jasper Sharp (85/100, inferred): The critic admires Imamura's Palme d'Or winner for its ethnographic realism and portrayal of a harsh rural society as part of a natural cycle of life and death. He singles out the film's matter-of-fact depiction of human-animal parallels and the powerful, beatific ending on the mountain. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama) - **Slant Magazine**, Zach Campbell (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Imamura’s Palme d’Or winner as a tonally expansive work that balances dramatic immediacy with sociological detachment, using scenes of village brutality and the son’s arduous journey with his mother to draw viewers into the characters’ harsh social framework before pulling back for contemplation. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-ballad-of-narayama/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film passionate, dark, and fearsome in its depiction of harsh village customs and human impulses, more intense than a simple anthropological tale. Imamura's direction and the story's unblinking cruelty make it a fascinating, if not widely accessible, experience. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ballad-of-narayama-1983) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as excellently crafted, strongly acted and directed, and well shot, highlighting its focus on the custom of abandoning the elderly. Village life is shown with gossip, violence, and raw sex scenes that enhance rather than detract, though the pic is a shade long. [Read](https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/narayama-bushi-ko-2-1200425481/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (30/100, inferred): The critic notes the film's rich, rampant portrayal of nature and life force in a primitive mountain village, contrasting it ironically with modern civilization. While performances are strong, the overly picturesque style undercuts the story's intended austerity. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/07/arts/film-imamura-s-narayama-ballad.html) ## Details - **Director:** Shōhei Imamura - **Director:** Shōhei Imamura - **Screenplay:** Shōhei Imamura - **Novel:** Shichirō Fukazawa - **Cinematography:** Masao Tochizawa - **Editor:** Toshihiko Kojima, Fusako Matsumoto, Hajime Okayasu, Yoshiko Onodera, Masahito Watanabe - **Music:** Shinichiro Ikebe - **Production design:** Gorô Kusakabe - **Costume design:** Kyoto Isho - **Producer:** Jirô Tomoda - **Cast:** Ken Ogata as Tatsuhei; Sumiko Sakamoto as Orin; Tonpei Hidari as Risuke; Aki Takejo as Tamayan; Shoichi Ozawa as Katsuzô; Fujio Tokita as Jinsaku; Sanshō Shinsui as Zeniya Tadayan; Seiji Kurasaki as Kesakichi - **Runtime:** 2h 10m - **Release (the US):** 22 June 1984 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw08P2VDdgM ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: CA, GB, IT, JP, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year 1984: Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year (nominated) - Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role 1984: Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (won) - Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1984: Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (nominated) - Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year 1984: Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year (won) - Japan Academy Prize for Screenplay of the Year 1984: Japan Academy Prize for Screenplay of the Year (nominated) - Cannes Film Festival 1983: Palme d'Or (won) ## If you liked this - *Ugetsu* (1953): Another rural world where family devotion offers little protection against cruelty. - *Pather Panchali* (1955), Fi1m 93: Family affection survives deprivation without the film pretending that affection is enough. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pather-panchali.md) - *The Tree of Wooden Clogs* (1978): Patient attention to rural work makes the pressures on family life tangible. - *Vengeance Is Mine* (1979): Shōhei Imamura follows human cruelty without supplying the comfort of easy explanations. - *The White Ribbon* (2009), Fi1m 86: A village’s respectable customs conceal cruelty that gradually becomes harder to ignore. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-white-ribbon.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. 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