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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

1960, Movie, 1h 51min

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.

Country: Japan

Director:

Cast:

Tatsuya Nakadai,

Chieko Nakakita,

Hideko Takamine

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Critic rating

Average critic rating

8.0

Reviews

Critic David Parkinson

rated

8

...a fascinating snapshot of conservative Japanese society before it was shattered by the ’60s.

Read full review at Empire

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Some movies that have similar genres and were produced around the same time as When a Woman Ascends the Stairs include 12 Angry Men, The 400 Blows, A Taste of Honey, The Slender Thread, Through a Glass Darkly, Fear Strikes Out.