It's hard to understand Japaese, even when translated into western font translation;
Niyamadori ?
Narayama? Yamadori ?... Short vocalic syllables open wild mountain landscapes...
The tradition in this region was to accompany older people to the top of the mountain in winter so they would die. Older people would accept this as a sort of inevitable course of life, and death.
So little to feed the family that the grandmother took a stone in her hand and broke her teeth to show that she can't be fed any longer. That she knows she is now a heavy weight on the community and that she should die now.
The film is about a son who can't be as cynical as to erase his mother's life for the comfort of the rest of his commununity.
I wonder how an "Evangelist" a "Muslim", a "Catholic", a "Jew", a "Buiddist", etc, any kind of religious esxtremist wopuld have treated this...
This film / movie is about ...