WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (THE CRITERION COLLECTION)

Details

• Release Year: 1960
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: 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: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Katô, Ganjiro Nakamura, Eitarô Ozawa, Keiko Awaji, Mikio Naruse, Ryûzô Kikushima
• Director: Mikio Naruse
• Runtime: 1:51
• Company: Toho International Co., Ltd., Janus Films, The Criterion Collection
• Media Format: Movie