One of the key figures of the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s and 70s, Shōhei Imamura cemented his international reputation during the 1980s, with several films that all competed at Cannes to considerable admiration. He remains the only director from Japan to win two Palme d’Ors during his career.
That first Palme d’Or-winner forms half of our double bill focusing on his particularly fruitful 1980s period. Adapted from a 1956 short story, itself inspired by a folktale, The Ballad of Narayama (1983) is a vibrant tapestry of difficult existence in rural 19th-century Japan. A local ritual in a village with scarce resources forces anyone living to 70 to go up the mountain and be left there to die as sacrifice, the elderly person usually carried up there by one of their adult children. At age 69, the still-spritely matriarch Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) gets all her affairs in order, passing on both virtues and sometimes horrifying vices to her extended family. This is one of several transgressive films Imamura made concerning the survival instincts of Japanese people, each a vessel for considerable empathy with often marginalized figures in society. Black Rain (1989) is perhaps the definitive Imamura text in this regard. The film jumps back and forth between the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and five years on, as survivors, both young and old, try to maintain a semblance of a traditional life in the face of cards dealt to them by fate. Both films detail precarious existences to appropriately distressing but ultimately deeply moving ends.

One of the key figures of the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s and 70s, Shōhei Imamura cemented his international reputation during the 1980s, with several films that all competed at Cannes to considerable admiration. He remains the only director from Japan to win two Palme d&#8217;Ors during his career.
That first Palme d&#8217;Or-winner forms half of our double bill focusing on his particularly fruitful 1980s period. Adapted from a 1956 short story, itself inspired by a folktale, The Ballad of Narayama (1983) is a vibrant tapestry of difficult existence in rural 19th-century Japan. A local ritual in a village with scarce resources forces anyone living to 70 to go up the mountain and be left there to die as sacrifice, the elderly person usually carried up there by one of their adult children. At age 69, the still-spritely matriarch Orin (Sumiko Sakamoto) gets all her affairs in order, passing on both virtues and sometimes horrifying vices to her extended family. This is one of several transgressive films Imamura made concerning the survival instincts of Japanese people, each a vessel for considerable empathy with often marginalized figures in society. Black Rain (1989) is perhaps the definitive Imamura text in this regard. The film jumps back and forth between the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and five years on, as survivors, both young and old, try to maintain a semblance of a traditional life in the face of cards dealt to them by fate. Both films detail precarious existences to appropriately distressing but ultimately deeply moving ends.

Sacrifice and Transience: A Shôhei Imamura Double Bill

SACRIFICE AND TRANSIENCE: A SHÔHEI IMAMURA DOUBLE BILL

The only director from Japan to win two Palme d’Ors, Shōhei Imamura cemented his international reputation during the 1980s. Our double bill highlights two films about the survival instincts of Japanese people, each a vessel for considerable empathy with often marginalized figures in society.

The only director from Japan to win two Palme d&#8217;Ors, Shōhei Imamura cemented his international reputation during the 1980s. Our double bill highlights two films about the survival instincts of Japanese people, each a vessel for considerable empathy with often marginalized figures in society.