Main Cast: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Daisuke Kato
Release Year: 1960
Country: JP
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
Filmmaker Mikio Naruse takes a characteristic dour look at life in When A Woman Ascends the Stairs. The central character is a barmaid, who works day and night to avoid being thrown out into the street. She knows that, if she loses her job, the only profession open to her is the World's Oldest. But when the worst happens, the barmaid learns to live with herself while compromising her values. The film's original title was Onna Ga Kaidan O Agaru Toki. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Mikio Naruseis unjustifiably but perhaps understandably less well-known than more Westernized colleagues like Kurosawa, due to his restrained, often somber style, which the director of Rashomon (1951) described as being "like a great river with a calm surface, and a raging current in its depths." Keiko (Hideko Takamine), a bar hostess in the Ginza district, a strong and dignified woman, bears the buffeting of her life with just such a calm surface. A widow, now at the age of 30, she casts about for a means of survival, unwilling to make her life easier by turning to prostitution, like her co-workers, out of respect for the memory of her husband. A compassionate account of the wrenching vicissitudes of the life of a woman far superior to her surroundings, it achieves its considerable power through Naruse's stoic, unblinking camera work, juxtaposing the poise of his heroine against the frenetic atmosphere of the bar and its frantically moneygrubbing owners. Takamine, Naruse's favorite actress, gives a performance of great depth, nuance, and delicacy, and Tatsuya Nakadai has a sharp turn as a comic bartender. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Keiko, a young widow, becomes a bar hostess in Ginza to make ends meet. Now 30, she must decide whether to open her own place or get married. She struggles to maintain her independence in a male-dominated society. ' She is a widow beginning to lose her looks. She has dependents, including a feckless brother and his young son, who needs an operation. Every decision carries a financial consequence. Keiko is obliged to live luxuriously and to invest in expensive kimonos. If she sleeps with a customer, she risks losing her good name. She projects ease and grace but the audience knows how tormented she really is - they also know how much rent she has to pay and the cost of her nephew's operation.'[1]
