Synopsis
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.
Cast
| Keiko Yashiro | Hideko Takamine |
| Nobuhiko Fujisaki | Masayuki Mori |
| Junko Inchihashi | Reiko Dan |
| Kenichi Komatsu | Tatsuya Nakadai |
| Goda | Ganjiro Nakamura |
| Matsukichi Sekine | Daisuke Kato |
| Minobe | Eitaro Ozawa |
| Yuri | Keiko Awaji |
Credits
| Director | Mikio Naruse |
| Screenplay | Ryuzo Kikushima |
| Producer | Ryuzo Kikushima |
| Music | Toshiro Mayuzumi |
| Cinematography | Masao Tamai |
| Production Design | Satoshi Chuko |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie
- New video interview with Tatsuya Nakadai
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film scholars Audie Bock, Catherine Russell, and Phillip Lopate
From the Current
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs:
They Endure
by
Feb 19, 2007
The posthumous international triumph of Mikio Naruse is one of the most unique corrections in film history. During his lifetime (1905–69), Naruse toiled away at his craft largely unsung, though respected by his peers, making more than eighty pictures. After he died, retrospectives of his work . . .
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