Ode to Mt. Hayachine / Hayachine no fu Series: Japanese Screen Classics: In Honor of Madame Kawakita [July 30 – Aug 14, 2008] Director: Sumiko Haneda, Country: Japan, Release: 1982, Runtime: 186
Sumiko Haneda began making films in the 1950s, working on educational and industrial films until she completed her first solo effort in 1957, Ladies’ Class in a Village. A quarter-century later, she made the film acclaimed by many critics as her masterpiece, Ode to Mt. Hayachine. The film was shot in the foothills of a mountain that since ancient times has been worshipped as a site of mystical power. The local inhabitants are famous for their performance of the kagura, a dance theater form that has its origin in religious ritual. Focusing on both the preparation and eventual performance, Haneda records a year in a village’s life, as the rhythms of the dance parallel the natural seasonal cycles that define the lives of the dancers.
