Ballad of Orin (1977) User Reviews

A powerful film that deserves to be seen by more film lovers.

[baepj · 8/10 · 15 February 2002]

Japan is one of the world's more rigid cultures and its great filmmakers have created equally great art by telling stories of men and women who resist a tyrannous culture, whether embodied in the shogunate, the military, or any other area of national life. Unlike American films, which usually depict a victorious resister, Japanese films usually show the resistance ending in defeat--if there is a victory it is a moral one.

Orin, a blind traveling musician who is expected to remain celebate, is sexually violated and is expelled from her group. An outcast, she ultimately links up with a young man who is opposed to Japanese militarism. Although she is "available" to him, he will not take advantage of her, as he resists a culture where hypocrisy reigns and where women (and men, also) are expected to yield to superior force. He is ultimately destroyed and she takes her own life.

Please excuse any inaccuracies in my account; I last saw this film more than twenty years ago. I felt then, as I do now, that its humanistic perspective connected it to many other great Japanese films, such as the Kobayashi trilogy and Mizoguchi's "Sansho the Bailiff." It is my sincere hope that it will eventually appear on videocassette or DVD.

A beatiful folk song of a film

[FilmsFillMyHoles · 8/10 · 17 January 2019]

I've always been fascinated by folk songs, especially their grim depressing nature. While they're usually about the everyday miseries of common people, there's always an underlying poetic reflection on the societal issues of the times in those simple words. Ballad of Orin is very much like that.

Like a song with a beautiful melody, this film also lulls you in, but it does so with its aesthetics. The cinematography is devoid of anything fancy, instead it has a gorgeous rustic yet delicate quality (one of the most beautiful looking films I've seen). It starts off with an enchanting "float-in-the-wind" serenity, but as the story progresses the winds start to get stronger and stronger and the ballad becomes bleaker and bleaker. Though the time jumps that portray Orin's life were a bit jarrin, I deeply felt and feared for her, which created a wonderful sense of empathy and tension throughout her journey.

I'd highly recommend seeking out Ballad of Orin. It's a beautiful film. You don't really need any preexisting knowledge of Japanese folklore or history, everything's very well explained.

FFFFFFF This Movie!!1!

[empty-bin · 8/10 · 31 October 2015]

The story was well told and the cinematography was well done. Still, the story was basically one of molestation from beginning to end. It literally went from bad to worse to FML!!!

This is that movie you only see once. I don't even know why anyone would tell this story. It's so bloody sad but in such a subtle way as to make it unbearable. You keep hoping something good will happen and stick.

Anyway... see it once but make sure before you start the film you pack all the sharp objects in your house and give them to your neighbor for the night because you WILL want to use one.

Stunning Work By Japanese New Wave Master

[Steven_Harrison · 9/10 · 24 August 2005]

Goodness, easily one of my favorite Shinoda films and a favorite Japanese New Wave film in general, this one is definitely work seeking out. Iwashita Shima (Shinoda's wife) plays Orin, a "goze" Goze were specifically blind itinerant singers, traveling alone or in groups, who initially became popular around the Edo period. The last of the goze died this past April (2005) and at one time there were around a thousand goze in Japan. The film lets you know early on that (in this time period) blind women can either do this or be prostitutes (the latter of which is an important difference, as sexual relations is an expellable offense in the group.) This is turn of the century Japan, during the end of the Meiji era while the Russo-Japanese war was going on, and you're made well aware of the time period during the film (it struck me as a feminist critique of modern society as well as a drama.) Orin's love affairs, some undesired, fill a relatively austere film with bursts of sexuality. Her love life is eventually a tragic one, however, and the film does not pull any punches. The full screen cinematography is stunning, with each shot flattened out into a artful expression. The music of this film plays a large part (scored like almost all of Shinoda's films by Takemitsu Toru) and is unforgettable. Orin and her shamisen stayed in my mind for some time. Highly highly recommended.

Available in DVD (non-US format)

[phawalsh · 10/10 · 12 January 2006]

This is in my top 10 list of films. This is a beautiful, moving film. It is also probably one of the most tragic films I have seen. It got an inexplicably tepid review from Vincent Canby when it premiered in NYC back in 1977 or 1978, which perhaps explains why it was never widely distributed in the US. The film takes place during the first decades of the 20th century, following the story of Orin, blind from birth, from childhood on. The film is told largely from her perspective, from a woman's perspective, which is rare in film, especially Japanese films. The other reviewer is mistaken - she does not take her own life, but he is entirely correct that the film deserves a much, much wider audience than it has received, at least in this country.

More than 20 years after seeing this movie, and having searched for it for almost as long, I finally obtained a decent DVD with English subtitles from play-asia.com (Hong Kong). It is listed there as Hanare Goze Orin. It's rather expensive, but worth it, in my opinion. You'll need a region-free player.

Disappointing final third

[blakestachel · 7/10 · 12 January 2022]

My 5th Shinoda (after Pale Flower, Under the Blossoming Cherry Tree, Double Suicide, and Himiko)

A greatly affecting first hour was sullied by a disappointing turn of theme and plot, to where the film became less interested in vindicating it's sympathetic, central character, as it shifted its focus towards a more macro and less compelling cause. Despite being disappointed in how the events of the film were resolved, a litany of beautiful moments still linger in my mind, and I consider Ballad of Orin to be a worthwhile experience overall.

End-To-End Depressing!

[net_orders · 5/10 · 21 January 2018]

BALLAD OF ORIN / BANISHED ORIN (HANARE GOZE ORIN). Viewed on Streaming. Costume design = ten (10) stars; cinematography and lighting = ten (10) stars; restoration/preservation = ten (10) stars; production design = eight (8) stars; music = eight (8) stars; subtitles = seven (7) stars; continuity = two (2) stars. Director Masahiro Shinoda (who is also credited as a script co-writer) constructs a very sad and tragic tale of the times (circa early 1900s) involving a lone goze (a blind female beggar/minstrel who wanders about singing and playing the shamisen) whose beauty and sex drive are her undoing. The protagonist was abandoned as a child by her parents and raised in a goze commune run by strict women who provide local/regional musical entertainment for a living. It is an organization not unlike geisha training houses of the era, but with a twist: having sex with males is forbidden on pain of expulsion. This absolute rule makes sense, since goze are ripe for sexual exploitation because of their severe disability and run the risk of becoming short-lived prostitutes. (Not surprisingly, there is a strong undercurrent of lesbianism in the group.) Shinoda seems to be along for the ride (or as a tour guide?), since it is overly obvious where the painful plot is going and where things will end up once his leading lady (who happens to be his real-life wife) is tossed out of the commune for breaking (often, it seems) its cardinal rule and becomes a lone goze (she later realizes the wisdom of this prime directive and tries to get back in, but no deal. Acting is generally well directed except for the Director's wife (Shima Iwashita) who turns in a much too perky performance for such a tragic role. She does, however, deliver lines that are strong statements and refreshingly straight forward (unlike the usual line-reading vagueness and overly-done posturing by lead actresses in contemporary films). Costume design is stunning. Cinematography (narrow screen format, color) and lighting (especially of exteriors) provide gorgeous shots (perhaps to underline what goze tragically can not see?), but chopped-off panoramas--the film "cries out" for a wide-screen format! Continuity needs a re-edited re-think. The first half of the film is overloaded with flash backs/forwards rending the story line confusing rather than punching up an overly long movie that is sometimes borderline boring. There are also continuity problems in the rest of the movie. Production design is all-around very good. Score uses a fair-sized orchestra with extremely effective orchestral arrangements . Subtitles are close enough. A Toho programmer that is uniformally a real downer. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.