The Ceremony
Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades.
The Ballad of Narayama
In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?
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Nagisa Ôshima
Director
Kei Satô
as
Sakurada Kazuomi, Grandfather
Kenzô Kawarasaki
as
Sakurada Masuo
Nobuko Otowa
as
Sakurada Shizu
Atsuo Nakamura
as
Tachibana Terumichi
Keisuke Kinoshita
Director
Danko Ichikawa
as
Kesakichi
Seiji Miyaguchi
as
Mata-yan
Eijirô Tôno
as
Messenger
Masao Oda
as
One of the villagers who teaches Narayama's manners
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