The Ballad of Narayama

FILM · MONTHLY CLASSICS

Friday, February 8, 7 PM

Shohei Imamura‘s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece is set in a remote mountain village in 19th-century Japan wherein tradition dictates that those who reach the age of 70 must be carried to the top of Mount Narayama and left to die. Despite her hardscrabble surroundings, Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) is still sprightly at 69, working the fields and managing her family’s affairs. Even so, when winter returns to the valley, she demands that her eldest son (Ken Ogata) carry out her fate. A film full of mud, lust, sweat and death, Narayama is a grand culmination of Imamura’s career-long interest in "the lower part of the human body and lower part of the social structure," presented in a brand-new 4K restoration.

1983, 131 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Shohei Imamura. With Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Takejo Aki.

Tickets: $14/$11 seniors & students/$5 members

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