Elderquest 2010

Robert E. Yahnke

Univ. of Minnesota

DISCUSSION: The Ballad of Narayama

 

FILM TECHNIQUES:

 

Throughout the film there are numerous uninflected shots; that is, shots of one image that convey one meaning: sometimes we see transitional shots of the changing seasons, sometimes we see shots of Mt. Narayama, or shots of snow falling, or insert close-ups of animals.  Why the use of these uninflected shots?

 

FAMILY AND VILLAGE RELATIONSHIPS:

 

What was your response to the following characters and the nature of their relationships within their families?

 

Orin, the old woman of 69, head of her family and Tatsuhei, her middle-aged son

Orin and her new daughter-in-law, Tama, the widow who, after 100 days of mourning, walks to

the village and is married to Tatsuhei

Tatsuhei and his 2^nd wife, Tama

Kesakichi, Tatsuhei’s older son and Matsu, the young woman with a birthmark across half of her face—and the woman Kesakichi brings into the family after she becomes pregnant

Risuke, the yakko, Tatsuhei’s younger brother and the other family members

Orin and Okane, the old woman, at first who is near death, and then later recovers

 

CUSTOMS:

 

Discuss the cultural expectations within this small mountain village:

·         The oldest son will become the head of the household

·         2^nd and subsequent sons, the yakkos, are not allowed to marry—but made to work on behalf of their family unit

·         Families practice infanticide

·         Girls are sometimes sold by families—and taken away by the salt dealer

·         When parents reach the age of 70, they are carried by their oldest son up to Mt. Narayama and left there to die

·         When someone dies (obviously if parents—they would die before the age of 70), families takes turns building coffins for the dead

·         Stealing food from other villages will not be tolerated.

 

PLOT QUESTIONS:  

 

Evaluate the following plot developments in the film:

 

1. A dying husband orders his wife, Oe-i, to have sexual intercourse with every yakko in the village in order to overcome the curse he believes was set on his house by his father’s murder of a yakko many years ago.  
2. When Matsu, the new member of the household (brought in by her lover Kesakichi) violates the code of scarcity by stealing from her Tatsuhei’s family, Tatsuhei confronts her on her way back to the house and threatens her with murder by holding her over an open abandoned well—and orders her not to steal again.
3. After the villagers have removed all of the stolen food from the Amaya house, four heads of households (including Tatsuhei) get together to divide the food into three piles.  They draw lots to see which of the four will not get any extra food—and Tatsuhei loses.
4. Orin asks her new family member, the young Matsu, to bring her starving family some food and stay with them that night.  Later that night, the villagers descend upon the Amaya family (Matsu’s family) and hold them—as well as Matsu—accountable for her actions: in other words, the family must pay for their stealing of food.  
5. When Oe-i, the wife ordered by her husband to have sexual intercourse with all the yakkos in the village bypasses Risuke, Orin’s 2^nd son, Tatsuhei, his older brother, goes to his own wife, Tama, and asks her to have sexual intercourse with Risuke.  She refuses.
6. Orin then goes to Oe-i and pleads with her to have sex with Risuke.  But Oe-i says she got a special exemption from her dead husband’s spirit and does not have to service Risuke.  So Orin goes to her old friend, Okane (the old woman that was near death and miraculously recovered after eating some rice), and that old woman agrees to have sex with Risuke. 
7. When Orin confronts her son Tatsuhei about his being sighted at the Western Mountain, we see a quick flashback to Tatsuhei standing before a tree mysteriously whipped by the winds in scene 8.  Later, in scene 43, we learn about a long-held secret regarding the story of Rihei’s disappearance (he was Tatsuhei’s father), and in scene 44 Tatsuhei appears to resolve his feelings about this matter.

 

MT. NARAYAMA

 

1. In scene 2 Kesakichi works in the house, and as he works he sings a song about an old woman taken up to the mountain.  What ideas are suggested about the expected ritual of taking your 70-year-old parent up to Mt. Narayama?
2. Evaluate Orin’s actions as she prepares for her eventual journey to Mt. Narayama.  Why is Orin so happy when Tama, her eldest son’s bride-to-be, arrives in the village?  Then why does she run outside to a shed and smash her teeth against a stone basin in scene 19? (Remember that she tried to break a tooth earlier.)
3. Orin has never gotten over the fact that her husband Rihei refused to carry his own mother up to Mt. Narayama when she turned 70—and even worse, Rihei abandoned Orin at the same time.  Explain how her feelings about Rihei drive her relationship with her eldest son and the image she seeks within her village.
4. What did you think about Orin’s feast the night before she left for Mt. Narayama—a feast for old men that had years before carried at least one parent up to Mt. Narayama?  What did you think when one of the old men confided in Tetsuhei a secret rule regarding this ritual?
5. How can we relate to the metaphor of Mt. Narayama in today’s contemporary world?  What emotions were aroused as you watched the journey up the mountain unfold in scenes 48-following?  What was the most difficult part of the sequence for you to watch?  Why was Tatsuhei so excited that it snowed on Mt. Narayama just after he dropped off his mother? Why did the film end with Tatsuhei back in his house and his eldest son bringing in another girl friend to live with them?

 

PARALLEL LIVES:

 

• Tatsuhei struggles with his obligation as the eldest son—whether or not to carry his mother up to Mt. Narayama.  Another character, in scene 11, has to tie up his father sometimes because the old man steals food in the village (and we learn later why that is such a big deal). Consider their parallel paths: an eldest son with an elderly mother and an eldest son with an elderly father.
• When the old man escapes from his son in scene 47, and runs to Orin’s house for help, the old woman tell shim,” You must not embarrass yourself in front of the god of the mountain.  While you’re alive, you must not turn away from the god, or your son.”  After the man is taken away by his son, Orin snaps, “What an idiot.”  How did you respond to this scene?

 

KEY QUOTES:

 

• Orin: “The law is the law.  Pity gets you nowhere.”
• Tatsuhei: “Our ancestors have come here for hundreds of years and I’ll come, carried on my son’s back.  Then after 25 yeas it will be my son’s turn.  They say the god of the mountain waits for us up there, but I wonder if it’s true.”