Have you seen the 1983 movie Narayama Bushiko directed by Shohei Imamura? Quite a few years ago I saw it in NYC at the Carnegie Theater on 57th Street (no longer standing), and was completely unprepared for that kind of story. To say that it left a strong impression on me is an understatement. At least once a year I remember it. I don’t know why that movie hit me so hard. Maybe because it tends to force the viewer to see situations in new ways, and with a new understanding. At the end of the movie, in one way or another, the heart’s core has been reached.
The movie is about people, their village, and its poverty. It’s about one family in particular. Life at that time, Japan in the 19th century, was unimaginably harsh in that village, and for villagers to survive, babies had to die, and people who had reached the age of 70 had to go to the top of Mount Narayama to wait for death – alone. During the movie the viewer sees and feels the unbearable hardship of life then. It’s awfully hard to be a witness to life lived under those circumstances, and that’s the reason the movie is easily remembered years later.
Is the story beautiful? When all is said and done, yes, it is. Many people think so; though many people think it’s not. That’s true about many things in life, isn’t it?