The Ballad of the Narayama Mountain, an old Japanese movie. Last night I dreamt that I was sitting in a circle with old women and suddenly realized that I was in the place shown in the movie. The movie is based on a Japanese folk story of a remote village, living on the edge of starvation, where people reaching seventy had "to go to the mountain" to die. Summary from the wiki (with my editing):
The film is set in a small rural village in Japan in the 19th century. According to tradition, once a person reaches the age of 70 he or she must be taken by his son to a remote mountain to die of starvation, a practice known as ubasute. The story concerns Orin, who is 69 and of sound health and good teeth, but notes that a neighbor's son had to drag his father to the mountain, so she resolves to avoid clinging to life beyond her term. She destroys her front teeth so she will not be pitied, she sends her bad daughter-in-law with a present to her family - just when she know that they are going to be lynched (therefore cutting her line's link with the "black" family of the community), and recruits a friend to help her younger son to lose his virginity. The film shows the brutal, desperate life of the villagers, interspersed with beautiful vignettes of nature – birds, snakes, and other animals hunting, watching, singing, copulating or giving birth.
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