GurlyIamBeach
Instant Favorite.
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Vonia
The Ballad of Narayama (Japanese: Narayama bushikô) (1983) (Not to be confused with the superior original version from 1958) Not my type of film, Cruel ubasute custom, Harsh graphic sex scenes, National Geographic, Cringed through significant film. http://all-that-is-interesting.com/ubasute/2 (Tanka (短歌 tan-kah) poems are unrhymed short poems that are five lines long, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format. #Tanka #PoemReview
kurosawakira
I have not, as of this writing, seen Kinoshita's 1958 film, but I'm able to remedy that since Criterion are releasing it on Blu-ray in February. It'll be interesting to compare.Imamura's film is, as one might expect, quite explicit, not least because of his naturalistic documentarian eye. This is way too explicit for my taste, but on the other hand it successfully captures that certain apprehensiveness that perhaps should be evoked in the face of the kind of deleterious brutality that society is capable of, the connivance and all.But first and foremost it all crescendoes to the climatic mountain scenes, the most lucid film-making in Imamura's oeuvre, and absolutely among the most shockingly meaningful, moving and unforgettable images ever put to film. There is the pit (echoing an earlier Imamura film), but it's the mountain that from very early on becomes the leading motif: the mundane vs. the sacred/traditional, the beastly vs. the elevated spirit, life vs. life in death, and so on. But Imamura's sly sense of humanity reminds us where we're coming from after we have started descending from the mountain. The counterpoint of what happens (Tatsuhei is the dumbstruck witness of this) just after we have departed from Orin is genius in its intensity and, yes, brutality. The contrasting elements of peace and violence, dignity and ignobility, solemnity and bitter farce, are so expertly threaded through that the effect of that one short moment left a deep mark in me. I can't say that for many moments in film, no matter how wonderful images I've witnessed. I can see myself visiting that sumptuous ending for years to come.Released on Blu-ray in Region B by the Masters of Cinema series.
tmalinko
It is a shocker, which opens on a villager finding a dead newborn boy on his field… His only resentment is: why HIS field was chosen? The fact of murdering a baby doesn't seem to concern anyone in this hunger-stricken small village, population of which must adhere to rather radical if cruel set of regulations in order to secure the survival of their community. Set in the late 19th Century, this film will leave you to ponder the structure of our own society as you'll find many parallels with modern day. An unforgettable experience! This masterpiece is not for those who expect to be entertained. Be prepared to be haunted by the scenes of brutality and sexual fervor long after the movie is over. A must see for every serious cinema admirer.
adelbert
Bad? How we can give an opinion about a Japanese film without knowing their cultural background? As I already said in my opinions about films out of the US, there is a fundamental lack of history about nations, languages, women and man. How is this possible? Such a lack ? I don't known, but I think the US intellectual people has to understand that not only the US exists in this world. By the way I love your culture and I would not give the impression that I am saying something badly about your people. But the lack in appreciating other cultures is astonishing! Why, for gods sake! Why always like it looks the supremacy of one culture over an other? The ballad of Narayama is just the opposite. Let's talk about the export of pornography out of the US?
