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Grade
Content Grade:
A
Sound Grade:
A
Extras Grade:
D
Picture Grade:
A
Specs
Studio/Label Website:
http://www.animeigo.com
Aspect Ratio:
1.78:1
Sound Options and Formats: Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Disc Length: 129 Minutes
Review
Director Shohei Imamura has never been one to shy away from depicting the more sordid details of human life, celebrating bodily functions and raw intentions of all manners to call out those drives that lay deep within us all. Still, many of his stories seem to have used much of these seamy scenes and actions in an almost mocking fashion, daring us to try and ignore them.
The Ballad of Narayama on the other hand feels like a purposeful and almost psychological exploration of what human life both used to be and what it is turning farther and farther away from.
Much of this film surrounds the idea of death and what that meant to a village of pastoralists in the mountains of Japan. In this area, whenever a person reaches the age of 70, they are carried off to a mountaintop and left there to fend for themselves and eventually die. The thinking behind is that they are unable to contribute successfully to the survival of the village, and therefore, they should not be able to be a part of it. It's a harsh sentiment, but one that many cultures have been practicing for years.
That description is a rather reductive one, but it speaks to the almost animalistic way that these people live and the black and white way that they treat life and death and everyday life – from tossing dead babies aside to rot on the ground to desperate sex acts that the film is peppered with.
The purpose it would seem is to talk directly to our modern spirit, reminding us that all of our actions and intentions these days stem from this same base animalistic spirit. I feel like Imamura is questioning our egos throughout this film, especially in the character of the younger men of the village who seem lost and in slapstick mode throughout.
What, thankfully, he does not do is turn this into a moral argument about where society has gone wrong and how we are failing ourselves by not reverting back to these base instincts. No, I think Imamura sees the purpose of both eras in history, but wants us to at least be honest with ourselves about where every move we make spurs from and to not be afraid to admit that nor tart it up with psychology.
Picture and Sound
Great picture and sound quality.
Extras
A barebones disc with only a few trailers for other AnimEigo releases, production notes and a stills gallery.
