Requiem for the Ones Experiencing the Tragedy of Farewells: The Ballad of Narayama

The movie 'The Ballad of Narayama' is considered as one of the masterpieces of traditional cinema and of the famous director Shohei Imamura. The movie depicts a very cruel tradition to which people striving to survive in a mountain village of Japan are strictly attached. Tradition, as a founding past, is carried in the movie to the present and the future, with rituals, ceremonies and rites. Thus the community achieves a knowledge through tradition, allowing it to reproduce itself each time. However, this knowledge also manifests itself as a law-maker in the community-life. In the examined film this law is most succulently expressed as "rule is rule, mercy is useless". In particular, persons who reach 70 years of age, are taken by their sons or close relatives to the summit of the 'Narayama Mountain' and abandoned to die. In the cultural codes of the community, such as act is one of the most important tasks and obligations to be fulfilled. Thus, abstaining from such task and obligation is considered as the greatest sin, crime and shame. At this point, the tradition serves the function as a reminder to each member of the community, of the tasks and obligations, to prevent their sins, crimes and shames. For example, in the film, although the character ‘Mother Orin’ has healthy teeth, she is continuously told by both her grandchildren and other members of the community, that she has turned 70 and must go to the summit of the 'Narayama Mountain'. In short, each member of the community exerts pressure on those who turn 70. Against this pressure, healthy persons who turn 70 "break their front teeth with stone" to give the message to their sons or close relatives, who shall carry them to the summit of the Narayama Mountain, that the time has come for the tragic task and obligation they have to fulfill. In this context, the film 'The Ballad of Narayama' can be considered as a requiem for the ones experiencing the tragedy of farewells. This study is a content analysis and evaluation of the film 'The Ballad of Narayama', specific to the tradition, making use of qualitative research methodology and using the document analysis technique.