The Ballad of Narayama

is a 1958 Japanese historical drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. It is based on the 1956 novella of the same name by Shichirō Fukazawa. The film explores the legendary practice of ubasute, in which elderly people were carried to a mountain and abandoned to die. Cast Kinuyo Tanaka as Orin Teiji Takahashi as Tatsuhei Yūko Mochizuki as Tamayan Danko Ichikawa as Kesakichi Keiko Ogasawara as Matsu-yan Seiji Miyaguchi as Matayan Yūnosuke Itō as Matayan's son Ken Mitsuda as Teruyan Reception The film was shown in competition at the 19th Venice International Film Festival, where it divided critics between those who thought it a masterpiece and those who thought it poor. In a June 1961 review in The New York Times, A.H. Weiler called the film "an odd and colorful evocation of Japan's past that is only occasionally striking", adding that it was "stylized and occasionally graphic fare in the manner of the Kabuki Theatre" and "decidedly strange to Western tastes."