# The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考) (1983 film)
*The Ballad of Narayama* (楢山節考, Narayama bushikō) is a 1983 Japanese drama directed by Shohei Imamura, adapted from Shichiro Fukazawa's 1956 novel about a poor mountain village whose custom requires people who reach the age of 70 to be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. It won the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at the 36th Cannes Film Festival, the first of Imamura's two Palme d'Or awards.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) • [2](https://www.criterionforum.org/Review/the-ballad-of-narayama-arrow-academy-blu-ray)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenplay | Shohei Imamura, who also wrote the screenplay[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) |
| Source | Fukazawa Shichiro's 1956 novel of the same title; second film adaptation, after Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 version[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) |
| Release | April 29, 1983 (Japan); produced by Toei and Imamura Productions, distributed by Toei[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) |
| Running time | 131 minutes per Japanese databases; Cannes lists 133 minutes[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/narayama-bushikou/) |
| Principal cast | Ken Ogata as Tatsuhei, Sumiko Sakamoto as Orin, Aki Takejo as Tama[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) |
| Cannes | Palme d'Or, competition section, 36th Cannes Film Festival (1983)[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) |
| Japanese Academy Awards | Best Picture and Best Actor (Ogata) at the 7th awards in 1984, among other honors[4](https://eiga.com/movie/38363/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The film is set in a poor village deep in the Shinshu mountain range, where food is scarce and the community lives close to hunger. Village law holds that anyone who reaches 70 must be carried on a son's back to the top of Mount Narayama in winter and abandoned there, a practice that keeps the population in check so the young can survive; refusing would disgrace the family.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/narayama-bushikou/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_ballad_of_narayama_1984)
Orin, played by Sumiko Sakamoto, is 69 and still vigorous, so this winter it is her turn. She does not fear the mountain; she accepts being taken to the mountain god as an honor and finds quiet satisfaction in knowing that her death will free food and labor for the next generation. Her eldest son Tatsuhei (Ken Ogata), a widower, cannot reconcile himself to abandoning her. Before she goes, Orin settles the family's affairs, teaching the household's rules and practical knowledge to her daughter-in-law so that everything passes to the next generation.[4](https://eiga.com/movie/38363/) • [6](https://www.mcjp.fr/ja/la-mcjp/actualites/la-ballade-de-narayama-2026-ja)
The film follows Orin's final year and the village around her. Imamura's script, which integrates elements from another Fukazawa story, *Tohoku no Zummutachi* (The Miserable in North-eastern Japan), shows a community governed by harsh codes: families other than the eldest son's may not marry, and a household accused of theft, that of Orin's pregnant daughter-in-law Matsuyan, is wiped out in an act of collective vengeance that Orin knowingly enables by sending her back to her relations.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama) • [4](https://eiga.com/movie/38363/)
## Style and production
Unlike Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 adaptation, which was shot on sets in a heavily stylized mode drawing on kabuki, Imamura's film was captured entirely on location. He interspersed the human story with scenes of animals copulating and hunting, frogs, birds of prey, rats, and praying mantises, presenting the village as embedded in a wider ecosystem in which the line between human and animal behavior is blurred. Critics have described the result as a documentary style of realism, closer to the world of [David Attenborough](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-attenborough) than to Kinoshita's staged beauty.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama)
The shoot took place in a remote mountain area over the course of a year. Sakamoto, a Latin singer by profession rather than a screen actress, gave what Japanese sources call a passionate performance, at one point having her own teeth pulled for the role; Orin's intact teeth are mocked in the film as a sign of immoderate appetite.[8](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/146221) • [9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2649-the-ballad-of-narayama-abandonment)
The ending carries the film's one overt supernatural note. After Tatsuhei leaves his mother at the summit, a sudden snowstorm envelops the landscape, a seemingly divine act of purification that covers the skeletal remains of those abandoned before her. Tatsuhei turns back to call to her once more; she waves him away and waits in silence for the mountain god.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama)
## Reception and awards
At the 1983 Cannes festival the film competed against Nagisa Oshima's *Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence*, regarded as the favorite, and took the Palme d'Or. It was Imamura's first Palme d'Or; he won a second for *The Eel* in 1997.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084) • [10](https://cinemaanthology.com/japanese/films/the-ballad-of-narayama/)
In Japan the film won honors at the 7th Japanese Academy Awards in 1984, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Ogata, and Best Sound, with further awards for screenplay, music, cinematography, lighting, and art direction.[4](https://eiga.com/movie/38363/) Roger Ebert, the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times* from 1967 until 2013 and winner of the 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) for criticism, gave it four stars, calling it "a fascinating experience" while noting it was too introspective and unflinching to become a hit even on the art-film circuit.[11](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ballad-of-narayama-1983) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 94% Tomatometer score from 16 reviews.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_ballad_of_narayama_1984)
## Origins of the story
Fukazawa's novella, first published in the February 1956 issue of *Chuo Koron* and winner of the first Chuo Koron Newcomer Prize, drew on myth rather than documented fact. Its central motif, the abandonment of aged parents on a mountain (known as ubasute), was inspired by the folktale Obasute-san, a real mountain in the Japanese Alps in [Nagano Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/nagano-prefecture) whose name translates as "the mountain where old women are discarded."[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama) • [12](https://k-rain.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2432/files/bunkou_196.pdf)
## References
1. [The Ballad of Narayama (Narayama-bushi-ko), Japanese Film Database (JFDB)](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/10084)
2. [The Ballad of Narayama Blu-ray Review, Criterion Forum](https://www.criterionforum.org/Review/the-ballad-of-narayama-arrow-academy-blu-ray)
3. [Narayama Bushikou (The Ballad of Narayama), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/narayama-bushikou/)
4. [楢山節考：作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/38363/)
5. [The Ballad of Narayama, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_ballad_of_narayama_1984)
6. [楢山節考, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris](https://www.mcjp.fr/ja/la-mcjp/actualites/la-ballade-de-narayama-2026-ja)
7. [The ending of The Ballad of Narayama, Sight and Sound (BFI), Jasper Sharp, 12 September 2024](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/ending-ballad-narayama)
8. [楢山節考（1983年）, 映画ナタリー](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/146221)
9. [The Ballad of Narayama: Abandonment, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2649-the-ballad-of-narayama-abandonment)
10. [The Ballad of Narayama, Cinema Anthology](https://cinemaanthology.com/japanese/films/the-ballad-of-narayama/)
11. [The Ballad of Narayama movie review, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ballad-of-narayama-1983)
12. [「楢山節考」による「古き日本」への注目, Kanagawa University institutional repository](https://k-rain.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2432/files/bunkou_196.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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