Documentary

Taimagura Grandma

They may be elderly, but Masayo and Kumezo Mukaido are still working just as hard as when they were young. Their life is hardly made any easier by the snow that covers their mountain village home of Taimagura, in the north of Japan, for much of the year. But the old woman is good-humored and quick to smile, and the weather conditions are no obstacle at all to their carrying on their work. They mash soybeans with their feet to make miso, chop wood and harvest potatoes. The 16mm footage shows them hard at work on the land, intercut with black-and-white shots of their mountain village, and the elderly couple’s ruminations on life. Then the inevitable happens, and Kumezo dies. Now Masayo is all alone. This loving film documents a modest life packed with all the daily duties that come with working the land. It’s an ode to the unforgiving beauty of nature, an unflagging work ethic and ancient tradition.