Product Description

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse’s finest hour—a delicate, devastating study of Keiko (the heartbreaking Takamine Hideko), 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31644 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2007-02-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 111 minutes

Features

• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour - a delicate, devastating study of Keiko (the heartbreaking Takamine Hideko), 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 independenc

Amazon.com
Although its title is not instantly recognizable in the Great Movies canon, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs qualifies as a modest, graceful masterpiece. This 1959 film by Mikio Naruse has, like the director's reputation in general, slowly gained traction in the decades after Naruse's death in 1969... much like a woman quietly, discreetly walking up a staircase (the film's central and repeated image). The film considers the plight of a hostess in a goodtime-establishment in Tokyo's famous Ginza district; with her youth gone, it is now time to buy a bar of her own or latch onto a husband/benefactor. She is played by Hideko Takamine, a veteran of 17 Naruse films, whose melancholy, indomitable performance is the soul of the movie. The postwar production design is enhanced by the drinks-after-dark jazz music, which really roots in the film in an arena of almost desperate 1950s capitalism. The black-and-white widescreen photography, a jumble of slanting signs and beams and screens, fits Naruse's subtle method, which eschews big melodrama in favor of an incredibly nuanced appreciation for life's quiet disappointments. Naruse can offer no greater triumph than simply placing one's foot on a stair each night and summoning the strength to climb the staircase to work. In this film, that's enough. --Robert Horton

On the DVD
Bonus features are not extensive on Criterion's excellent disc, but they include an informative commentary track with Japanese-film guru Donald Richie and a lovely 13-minute interview with Tatsuya Nakadai, the mighty actor who was still a young up-and-comer when he played a supporting role in this film. A strong booklet includes a touching memorial essay about Naruse by leading lady Hideko Takamine and an appreciative essay by Philip Lopate, who keenly observes of the film, "[T]he preference for enlightened stoicism over glib redemption is pure Naruse." --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

A moving masterpiece
I happened across this film years ago on the video shelves of a local library and checked it out on a whim. Engrossed from start to finish, I immediately fell in love with When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and declared it one of my absolute favorites. That status has not changed after multiple viewings.

In Mama-san, Hideko Takamine creates one of film's most memorable characters. Her facial expressions tell the whole story, her warmth, dreams, cynicism, disappointments, most of all her quiet, subtle desperation centering on wanting to do something with her life before it becomes too late(making her a typical Naruse heroine). Watch the final closeup of Takemine before the film fades to black and try not to be moved. Her performance is the film's greatest strength, but she is ably supported by an all star cast which includes Masayuki Mori, Tatsuya Nakadai and Reiko Dan. Naruse's direction is also a major asset, creating atmosphere via wonderful performances(already mentioned), a jazzy, downbeat soundtrack, several establishing shots of the Ginza which create a relentless feeling of urban alienation, a "dark" look which establishes a nighttime mood, all of these factors enhanced by the director's use of widescreen Tohoscope.

Naruse's film seems to be modeled after Hollywood melodramas and "women's pictures" of the 1950's, as many critics have pointed out, but it is also somewhat similar to the Fellini film Nights of Cabiria which was made a few years earlier. Both films are episodic, both deal with "working girls," although at different levels, both have a sympathetic heroine even though she works in an industry that isn't respected by society at large, both heroines are tricked, or almost tricked, into false marriages, the music scores for both movies are similar, quirky, inspired by American music but with touches distinct for each composer, and finally, and most importantly, both films end with devastating closeups of the heroines' faces backed by musical crescendos, creating two of the most moving endings in film history, and two of the most indelible images. There is even a Ginza bar called Cabiria seen in the background when Mama and her manager visit the establishment they are thinking about buying. Perhaps this was intended as an homage?

At any rate, my only complaint about the video is that the picture quality is imperfect. I recently saw this film on the big screen as part of a Mikio Naruse retrospective playing at a Columbus arts center, and it appeared to have been remastered, the picture quality was pristine, making the film even more lovely and the viewing experience that much more fulfilling. Hopefully this restored print will inspire a DVD release of this little known classic so that its reputation, and impact, will become deservedly more widespread. In the meantime, though, I hope the video only format doesn't deter any potential viewers, because this is truly one of the all-time greats, not only of Japanese cinema but of cinema in general.

Maintaining dignity amid adversity
Like fellow film director Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse often portrayed the plight of women in Japanese society. This movie is about a senior hostess at a Ginza bar who tries to gracefully fend off the unwanted advances of customers. Everyone seems to want her for one reason or another; either they want her body, or in the case of her family, they want her money. Her life is one emotional betrayal after another. But through it all, she tries to maintain her dignity. And she manages to persevere. In the movie, there is the recurring image of her ascending the stairs to the bar where she works. "After it gets dark," she says, "I have to climb the stairs, and that's what I hate. But once I'm up, I can take whatever happens."

This is a movie about courage and the triumph of the human spirit amid adversity. Hideko Takamine, who plays the bar hostess, is one of Japan's greatest actresses. Sadly, only a handful of her movies have made it to America. She gives one of her best performances in this film.

an unheralded masterpiece
one of mikio naruse's last masterpieces was 1960's "when a woman ascends the stairs" - it is also one of only two of the great director's films currently available in any video format in the u.s. but wow, what an introduction it is! this seemingly modest film about a woman on the edge of a precipice, winding her way through dismal back alleys and cheap bars in search of an out is one of the great character pieces in world cinema. crisply shot in black and white widescreen (which is admirably reproduced in this edition), this beautifully directed and acted film is an absolute must for anyone interested in movies. the sadness lies in the knowledge that this kind of film is not made anymore; there's no one talented enough to pull it off nearly as well. class and subtlety are a rare commodity and this film has just the right amount of both. it's perfect, one of the greatest films of all time, one i come back to again and again.