Director: Imamura Shohei
Script: Imamura Shohei after Fukazawa Shichiro's novels
Cinematographer: Toshisawa Masao
Editing: Okayasu Hajime
Sound: Benitani Kenichi
Music: Ikebe Shinishiro
Cast: Ken Ogata, Sakamoto Sumiko, Hidari Tompeei, Takejo Aki
Production: Imamura Productions, Toei
Distribution:
La Rabia
19 rue de Liège
75 009 Paris
France
Phone: 00331 45 26 63 45
[email protected]
www.larabbia.com
Year: 1983
Screening: 2019, 2007
35 mm, Colour, 128 min,
OV Japanese with French Subtitles
Part of Japonism 2018
We are in a very poor village in the Shinshu mountains, in central Japan. According to the tradition, old people reaching the age of 70 have to climb the “oak mountains” (Narayama) and die at the top of it. Orin is 69 and lives with her son Tatsuhei. She is not afraid of going to Narayama. The villagers make fun of her because she still has all her teeth. One day, a Tama-yan woman comes from a neighbour village, ready to marry her son. Orin breaks two of her teeth to prove she is ready to climb the mountain.