... in this Japanese period drama from Shochiku and writer-director Keisuke Kinoshita. In a poor farming village, old woman Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka) is feeling the pressure, both from her ingrate grandson, and her own conscience and adherence to tradition, to commit obasute, wherein elderly people travel to the top of nearby Narayama mountain and wait to die from starvation or exposure. Orin is the strongest, most productive member of the family, but youth trumps utility, and Orin prepares to make her final journey.

Using widescreen and color film, director Kinoshita uniquely melds the cinematic with the theatrical, as the story is told in near kabuki fashion, with a singing narrator and traditional Japanese musical instrumentation. The sets are stylized and deliberately artificial, with realistic settings in the foreground, and miniature or painted backdrops behind them. There is also repeated use of monochromatic lighting, from red filters to green filters, to accentuate the mood of the scene.

The performances are equally stylized in the kabuki manner, and as such may be off-putting to Western audiences unused to the style. I thought the film was tremendous, an artistically challenging production with a very striking audio and visual presentation, and a moving, universal story touching on aging and obsolescence forming the bedrock. Recommended.

Having watched both versions of Ballad of Narayama I came to the conclusion that neither movie is truly great but if elements of both were to be combined it would create the perfect blend. I still enjoy both films quite a lot, it's just that they could've been more. The main advantage of this version is the great cinematography and the use of real life locations. The 1958 movie looks great too and the sets are fantastic in it but this version in my opinion is more impressive with the beautiful shots of real scenery. Additionally, I enjoyed the often metaphorical footage of animals and nature. On top of that I much prefer the way that this story was told as the main drawback of the original Ballad to me was the kabuki style storytelling which thankfully the newer one dispenses with.

However, what the first Ballad did much, much better was that it made me feel for its characters a lot more. That movie is shorter and yet the characters are more realised and when the ending comes and the inevitable has to happen it made me really sad. In this 1983 version the final choice didn't have the same impact due to me not caring as much about the people. On top of that the main matriarch was played much more sympathetically in the older film, thanks to the actress which helped to add to the emotional punch that the movie was aiming for. Instead of focusing on doing more to make the viewer care for the inhabitants of the village the newer Ballad instead opts for the inclusion of a plethora of mostly comedic sex scenes which whilst often amusing can be a bit too much. I understand that it's a bit of a trademark of director Imamura to do this and I don't have a problem with it but I just wish he substituted some of those scenes with others or made the movie longer to add more of the much needed emotion. All in all this is a very good movie, as is the first one but I still think there is room for another go at this story which if done right has the potential to be better than both its predecessors.