When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs • 1h 51m
Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1960 • Japan
Starring Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan
WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse’s finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine), who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo’s very modern postwar Ginza district, who entertains businessmen after work. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS shows the largely unsung yet widely beloved master Naruse at his most socially exacting and profoundly emotional.
Up Next in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
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WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS Comme...
This commentary features Donald Richie, author of A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, The Films of Akira Kurosawa, and Ozu: His Life and Films, and was recorded in New York City, in 2004 and 2006.
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Tatsuya Nakadai on WHEN A WOMAN ASCEN...
Tatsuya Nakadai has acted for some of Japan’s greatest directors, including Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Mikio Naruse, and revealed an impressive range, playing everything from samurai to the bar manager Kenichi Komatsu in WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS. In this 200...
