The Ballad of Narayama fingerprintStrong craft, striking style, no humor.
Tense
Builds slowly, so the intensity comes in waves.
Deeply moving and melancholic
Much of it is about family.
A little humor
Not a comedy at heart.
Family, society, and history
Lived-in and easy to get lost in.
Standout direction, performances, and characters
Standout cinematography and score
Tense
Builds slowly, so the intensity comes in waves.
The Ballad of Narayama is tense. The story builds slowly, so the intensity comes in waves.
Deeply moving and melancholic
Much of it is about family.
Emotionally, it's deeply moving, melancholic, and cathartic. Much of it is about family.
A little humor
Not a comedy at heart.
Expect a little humor.
Family, society, and history
Lived-in and easy to get lost in.
Its world is built around family, society, and history. The setting feels lived-in and easy to get lost in.
Standout direction, performances, and characters
The direction, performances, and characters stand out.
Standout cinematography and score
Look and sound: the cinematography and score stand out.
Based on the GoodWatch fingerprint: our scores for 70+ attributes of every movie. Select a row to see all of them.
Only Time Could Change the Cruelty of Tradition… Only Their Love Could Survive It…
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Quick answers from GoodWatch data.
The Ballad of Narayama is included with a subscription to ARROW in the United States. You can watch it free with ads on Kanopy. You can also rent or buy it from Apple TV, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Google Play Movies. All links in Where to Watch go to these licensed services.
Yes. It's widely acclaimed, with a GoodWatch score of 87/100 (IMDb 7.8 and Rotten Tomatoes 94%). The GoodWatch score combines critic and audience ratings.
Content advisories: disturbing imagery.
2 h 10 min
The Ballad of Narayama runs 2 h 10 min.
Not quite. Critics rate The Ballad of Narayama higher (94) than audiences (83). It may be more rewarding than it is crowd-pleasing.
It was made in Japanese. Produced in Japan.
+18GoodWatch finds legal streaming, rental, or purchase options for The Ballad of Narayama in 32 countries. Pick any of them in Where to Watch to see the local services.
TV Tropes lists 22 storytelling tropes for The Ballad of Narayama, including I Was Quite a Looker, Jerkass, Disney Villain Death.
7.8
