Japanese Movie: The Ballad of Orin
The title in Japanese is
"Hanare Goze Ni Orin"
A young
blind girl Orin is abandoned by her mother when she runs away in a small seaside town.
The girl is then taken by the town’s people to a school for blind entertainers
by a medicine salesman. At her new house she is trained by other blind women
who teach, show and share the songs and music they play together as travelling
entertainers. The troupe travel the country entertaining groups of people at
various locations including bath houses, meeting halls and local houses with
songs, stories and performances that allow them to get paid money or with food.
The young girl, Orin takes time to adjust to her new life, the clothing, instruments,
songs, walking in the snow, advances of drunken men, etc.
She trains
for over eight years and graduates become a Goze (blind entertainer).
Mastering
her new life she is popular as an entertainer but this also brings a darkness
that is hard to shake off.
An
encounter with a customer is hidden and when it surfaces among her handlers she
is thrown out of the trope as an outcast being disowned. She continues to
perform as a solo act and befriends many men, none who last and take care of
her. She then meets a man who is a deserter from the army who refuses to sleep
with her and insists she call him her brother so as to hide his identity. But
fate catches up with him and he has to flee leaving her once again to fend for
herself.
Attacked by a man known to her, the deserter returns and learns of
this incident and kills the man and flees. She follows the deserter to the
police station when he is captured where they meet briefly but he dies shortly
afterwards in custody. She continues to wander the countryside in a lovely red
gown.
A powerful
historical story that will share the era, lifestyle, people and hardships of Orin
the blind entertainer.
"Ballad of Orin (はなれ瞽女おりん Hanare goze Orin?) is a 1977 Japanese film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. Its alternate English-language
titles are Banished Orin and Symphony in Gray.
It details the life of a Goze, a blind female
minstrel (played by Shima Iwashita, the
director's wife), in early 20th-century Japan." Source: Wikipedia
Watch the full movie with English subtitles below
Movie: The Ballad of Orin
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