When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, a recent widow, adamantly opposed to hooking up with wealthy patrons, is a «mama-san» at the Lilac bar. Yuri, a younger hostess, seduces one of Keiko’s wealthiest customers, thus finding money to start her own bar. Inspired, Keiko begins to collect contributions from the regular customers at the Lilac.Yuri sinks into debt. She attempts to avoid them with a staged suicide, but she ends up really dying.While convalescing from an ulcer in her mother’s house,Keiko accepts a suitor’s proposal for marriage only to find out he’s already married. Keiko starts drinking.After a romantic evening with a bank manager, she accepts the stocks he offers her. Later, she gives them back and returns to the Lilac bar to begin her ascent to the top of the stairs…
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Script: Ryuzo Kikushima
Cinematography: Masao Tamai
Editing: Eiji Ooi
Sound: Masao Fujiyoshi, Nao Shimonaga
Music: Toshiro Mayuzumi
Actors: Hideko Takamine (Keiko Yashiro), Masayuki Mori (Fujisaki, bank branch manager), Reiko Dan (Junko), Tatsuya Nakadai (Komatsu), Daisuke Kato (factory owner, Sekine)
Production: Toho International, Japan
Producers: Ryuzo Kikushima
Sets: Satoshi Chuko
Format: 35mm B&W
Production Country: Japan
Production Year: 1960
Duration: 110

Mikio Naruse

He was born in Tokyo, on August 20, 1905.As the youngest child of a poor family, his only chance at secondary education was to study engineering in technical school.At the age of fifteen, though having no vocation for cinema, he is employed by Shochicu studios as property manager. Later he is promoted to assistant director and in 1930 he gets to direct his first short, Chanbara fufu. In 1935, after 24 films mixing laughter with melodrama, made according to the studio demands, he leaves Shochiku for PCL,which soon grew into the important Toho company. He stayed there until 1967 and his 89th and last film. Master of «shomingeki», a realistic film genre about working class characters, and «the women’s film», he directed his best work – a series of low key masterpieces portraying the hardships of a joyless everyday existence, the dissolution of the family and the muted violence of emotions. He died in Tokyo, on July 2, 1969.

Filmography

Selected Filmography
1931 Koshiben ganbare / Little Man Do Your Best! 
1933 Kimi to wakarete/ Apart from You 
1933 Yogoto no yume / Every Night Dreams
1935 Otome-gokoro sannin shimai / Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
1935 Tsuma yo bara no yo ni / Wife! Be Like a Rose!
1935 Uwasa no musume / The Girl on Everyone’s Lips 
1937 Nyonin aishu / Feminine Melancholy
1938 Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro / Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro
1939 Hataraku ikka / The Whole Family Works
1939 Magokoro / Sincerity
1940 Tabi yakusha / Traveling Actors
1941 Hideko no shasho-san / Hideko, the Bus Conductor
1943 Uta andon / The Song Lantern
1944 Tanoshiki kana jinsei / This Happy Life
1951 Ginza gesho / Ginza Cosmetics
1951 Meshi / Repast
1952 Okaasan / Mother
1952 Inazuma / Lightning
1953 Fufu / Husband and Wife
1953 Tsuma / Wife 
1953 Ani imoto / Older Brother,Younger Sister
1954 Yama no oto / Sound of the Mountain
1954 Bangiku / Late Chrysanthemums
1955 Ukigumo / Floating Clouds
1956 Shuu / Sudden Rain
1956 Nagareru / Flowing
1958 Iwashigumo / Summer Clouds a.k.a. Herringbone Clouds
1962 Horoki / A Wanderer’s Notebook a.k.a. Her Lonely Lane 
1964 Midareru / Yearning
1967 Midaregumo / Scattered Clouds a.k.a.Two in
the Shadow / Σκόρπια σύννεφα