Pastoral: To Die in the Country

1974 ‘田園に死す’ Directed by Shūji Terayama

A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.

Kantarô Suga Izumi Hara Yoshio Harada Masumi Harukawa Isao Kimura Kan Mikami Keiko Niitaka Yoko Ran J.A. Seazer Kaoru Yachigusa Chigusa Takayama

Alternative Titles

Pastoral Hide and Seek, Den-en ni shisu

drama fantasy

101 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by AshCrow ★★★★½ 4

Growing up can be Surreal.
Film Nº1/3 "Rare Gems Festival Vol.6" 2021

Regisseur Shūji Terayama zaubert in Pastoral einen knallbunten avantgardistischen Bilderreigen auf den Bildschirm und macht damit unverständlich klar, dass er neben Nobuhiko Ōbayashi zu den ganz großen Surrealisten Japans gehört. Denn Pastoral ist schon eine ungewöhnliche Erfahrung, eine Coming of Age Story im Arthouse Gewand die aber spätestens ab der Hälfte des Filmes noch einen Metaebene miteinbezieht die alles was man bis dahin gesehen hat in Frage stellt. Grobgesagt geht es um die Erinnerung an die Jugend oder besser gesagt den verklärten Rückblick darauf und was man alles ändern würde, wenn man noch einmal die Chance dazu bekäme mit seinem früheren ich zu kommunizieren.
Dabei lässt Terayama vor…
Review by reibureibu ★★★½ 6

A kaleidoscopic scrapbook of adolescent memories, filtered and remembered through the perspective of poetry and theater. There's rarely a moment when we truly know what is happening on-screen, but considering that the events in the film is a Bretchian performance filmed by a director within the film and the line between what is filmed and what is dreamed (if there even is a difference between the two) is murky at best, it's safe to say that the best way to approach this is just to submit yourself to the bevy of multicolored scenes and piece it all together when the walls come crashing down.
And like all confusing childhood experiences, what we see is perhaps a representation of real-life as…
Review by Robert Beksinski ★★★★½ 22

Pastoral: To Die in the Country is Japanese surrealism at its most wildly imaginative. Everything about the film makes it a sensory experience to be indulged in. The lush collage of color utilized between filters and scenery, and the use of unnatural sound puts the viewer's senses on high alert. It's simply mesmerizing.
Shûji Terayama is a director I am personally unfamiliar with, but it seems apparent everywhere I look that this film (basically his sophomore feature effort) is his proclaimed magnum opus. However, this is the tip of the iceberg for me and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of his work. His display of talent in this film alone purports his stature of being one…
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★½ 2

Wow. Although I had read numerous reviews nothing quite prepared me for the experience that is Pastoral: To Die in the Country. It is a film so rich in symbolism, themes and invention it threatens to overwhelm you. It is almost impossible to fully comprehend on a single viewing as you can only scratch the surface of such a dense and intense film that attempts to tackle such impossible subjects as memory, national history and time itself.
Shûji Terayama’s film is avant-garde filmmaking at its finest. So often surrealist cinema can come across as little more than a procession of incongruous imagery aimed at pretentious beret wearing intellectuals (and many may say this film is aimed at the same audience),…
Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★★ 6

***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***
Autobiographical, poetic, analytical, cathartic, honest and masterfully uneven. Terayama is highly influenced by Fellini's take on the disturbed mind of earthly circumstances and addresses it with Jodorowskian surreal elements. This strange hybrid, though, deepens quite enough into the realm of the psyche; it is a never-ending spinning wheel of philosophy, epiphanies and forbidden passions, an inevitable and prolonged soliloquy to come to terms with oneself's existence which, in the end, provokes nothing more than accepting the surrounding reality, a concept geniously represented by the torn-down walls in the end.
100/100
Review by Rod Sedgwick ★★★★★ 4

''I shall cut off my eyelids to see better, the razor blade reflects the horizon.''
Wow, am I glad this one jumped out at me as I browsed for a film to watch on a chilly Friday night. As I hit play and poured some wine to keep me warm, I knew only of this film's acclaim as a visionary surrealist work, and therefore my expectation was only to hopefully be impressed...

But pick me up off the floor and wipe the drool from the corner of my mouth, I am knocked out!
This is likely an autobiographical work from Japanese avant-garde filmmaker Shuji Terayama, which may seem like a simple coming of age tale with a canvas splattered with…
Review by Estéban Rōdriguez ★★★★ 1

Shûji Terayama has been a Filmmaker that is like one of those Liquid Motion Bubbler toys that I once had as a child.
By that I mean he’s someone I knew for a long time and whatever still frame I see from him his two films, Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets & Pastoral: To Die in the County Ive always been mesmerized by them but never looked more closely at them. Until now.
So why did I choose this over the other? Simple, because of one reason. What the movie is about. Going in, I was curious when I read this.
“A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of…
Review by ✨ christie ✨ ★★★★

a perfect case for surrealism as a magnifier of message rather than an obfuscator. about being kind to yourself when you find art to be a path through your own trauma, and about the importance of not setting the impossible task of reverting what has already been. final shot is one of the best ever, slight misgivings about that long take before the end on grounds of not being sure if a teenage actor should be exposed to it.
Review by Graham 🌻 ★★★★ 4

Ethereal, poetic
Theatre of dreams
Children transformed
Lilac light, eternal fright
Internal music of life
Hopes
Dreams
Futures
Naked, delicious
Yearning
Older, I watch
I see life
I am life
Lost, in a dream
Me, 2021
Stunningly gorgeous and absolutely bonkers, this mid 70's twisted piece of Japanese chaos and purist art is just what I needed today.
45 years before Nolan... don't try to understand - just feel it.
Review by Sally Jane Black

Terayama's avant garde biographical tale is a beautiful, surreal, colorful experience. It wanders through his childhood, allowing him to face himself 20 years before both literally and figuratively, and fills the spaces with strange characters, odd asides, and bright colors. It's hard to completely encompass this film here; there's so much to unpack.
There's so much symbolism, to begin with. From the color palettes and filters to the more direct Oedipal moments, from the discussions on memory to the circus full of weirdos and freaks, it's all intense and dense but not unfathomably so. This is a truly amazing film that I will have to revisit soon.
December count: 17/100.
Review by Anas Zwahri

في أحد المشاهد يسأل شوجي تيراياما نفسه : هل التجارب الماضية و طبيعة الحياة التي عشناها في مرحلة الطفولة والفترات ما بعد الطفولة المبكرة هي السبب الرئيسي في تكوين شخصيتنا الحالية أم لا, فهل السعادة الحالية التي نعيشها الأن نتيجة لتراكم تلك الأحداث التي مررنا بها والمدفونة في العقل الباطن و كذلك الكئابة والحزن على حد سواء , فالشخص السعيد يصبح أكثر سعادة والحزين يصبح أكثر حزننا مع الأيام , ومهما حاولت أن تبعد هذه الذكريات القديمة لكي تواصل حياتك الحالية فهي لن ترحل لأنها هي التي شكلتك هي جزء منك مهما كانت مأساوية وحتى لو لم تكن تدرك ذلك و لكن عقلك الباطني يمارس هذه العادة كل لحظة وفي كل دقيقة ..
أما بالنسة للأدباء و الفنانين والسينمائين تعد…
Review by zeno 🛸 ★★★★★ 1

Did you know that this film shares a composer (J.A. Seazer) with the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena? Terayama (certainly Japan's Fellini/Jodorowsky) must have been such a profound influence on mangaka Suehiro Maruo, too. Watching this film was a convergence of many things, for me. Such an immense one that it's going to take a lot of unpacking and probably a couple of rewatches to really feel like I grasped it entirely, but it's such a stunning and beautiful work of Japanese coming-of-age surrealism that I'm already in love with it.
"My own dreams are a reality to me who dreams them."

Recent reviews

Review by Night miner ★★★★★

Masterpiece
Review by Estéban Rōdriguez ★★★★ 1

Shûji Terayama has been a Filmmaker that is like one of those Liquid Motion Bubbler toys that I once had as a child.
By that I mean he’s someone I knew for a long time and whatever still frame I see from him his two films, Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets & Pastoral: To Die in the County Ive always been mesmerized by them but never looked more closely at them. Until now.
So why did I choose this over the other? Simple, because of one reason. What the movie is about. Going in, I was curious when I read this.
“A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of…
Review by komodoskar ★★★★

Some films seem to use absurdity for the sake of being absurd. Fortunately, this is not one such film. This film has surprisingly a lot to say about so many different topics: destiny, fate, growth, maturity, sex, relationships, death, faith, and it manages to juggle these themes with surprising dexterity. But even with all that stripped away; the unorthodox characters, plot, design, music and cinematography all keep the film thoroughly entertaining.
Review by AshCrow ★★★★½ 4

Growing up can be Surreal.
Film Nº1/3 "Rare Gems Festival Vol.6" 2021

Regisseur Shūji Terayama zaubert in Pastoral einen knallbunten avantgardistischen Bilderreigen auf den Bildschirm und macht damit unverständlich klar, dass er neben Nobuhiko Ōbayashi zu den ganz großen Surrealisten Japans gehört. Denn Pastoral ist schon eine ungewöhnliche Erfahrung, eine Coming of Age Story im Arthouse Gewand die aber spätestens ab der Hälfte des Filmes noch einen Metaebene miteinbezieht die alles was man bis dahin gesehen hat in Frage stellt. Grobgesagt geht es um die Erinnerung an die Jugend oder besser gesagt den verklärten Rückblick darauf und was man alles ändern würde, wenn man noch einmal die Chance dazu bekäme mit seinem früheren ich zu kommunizieren.
Dabei lässt Terayama vor…
Review by Kekoacinema ★★★★★ 7

Wholesome like a Wes Anderson flick
Review by emily 💌 ★★★

exhausting
Review by J Josephine ★★★★

8 1/2 if not shit and overrated lol
Review by AuroraNocte ★★★★

"My dream achievements are a reality to me who dreams them."
Review by Hugo Castillo ★★★★½

Kind of hate how often I instinctively compare Eastern cinema to Western (when the latter predates the former) but this really is 8½ on acid. Terayama had his own distinct style that carried over from Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets however; definitely interested in watching his other work. It's awesome and as I mentioned in the review for Rally, this soundtrack also needs an Oh Sees x Deerhoof collab covers record.
Review by neotoky0 ★★★★★

"We're all like flowers. We soon fade."
Review by theasroc ★★★★

Facing the order of time.
Review by CharlesJimenez ★★★★

I re-visited this film from curiosity after viewing what I feel is Terayama's most refined film 'Grass Labyrinth'. I re-read my prior review, which I am happy with as a simple analysis, if not a rephrase of ideas and themes explicitly discussed in the film. I remember that from the period of reviewing the film, I was very much regarding the film for its concepts rather than its executions, painting what I thought was ideally the film it was trying to be, and now I feel that I have watched exactly that film with age.
Re-visiting the film, I felt more resonance for how Terayama presents his self-fictionalisated quest in his symbolic memory language. Details, which were seen as just…