When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection
by Mikio Naruse

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Daisuke Kat?, Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai
Director: Mikio Naruse
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-02-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection

Movie Review: Naruse, the 4th and often forgotten great Japanese director...
Summary: 4 Stars

I love cinema, but I don't know nearly as much about it as I would like to. All the same, I like to learn, and I often listen to the advice of those that know more. That is how I ended up watching "When a woman ascends the stairs" (1959), by Mikio Naruse.

According to Ruben, a coworker who also happens to know a lot about cinema, Naruse (1905-1969) is, after Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Ozu, "the 4th and often forgotten great Japanese director". Truth to be told, I hadn't even heard Naruse's name before Ruben told me that, but when he offered to lend me this dvd, I didn't hesitate. After all, I didn't have too much to lose, at most two hours of my time.

I am quite happy I seized the opportunity to watch this film. It is poignant, and far from fast-paced, but manages to tell a story in such a way that makes you care, and think. The main character is Keiko (Hideko Takamine), a virtuous widow that works as a hostess in Tokyo, supervising a bar and attracting customers thanks to her beauty and grace. Even though Keiko is still young, she realises that times goes by and she is getting old, something that brings her face to face with choices regarding her future. Should she marry, buy a bar of her own, or leave things the way they are? And does she really have any choice?

All in all, I think this is a movie well-worth seeing, that will please those that enjoy the kind of film that leads you to identify with the characters, even if you don't really have a lot in common with them. Naruse pays attention to details, and weaves an atmosphere that ends up making the illusion of cinema almost real. For all that, I find it easy to recommend "When a woman ascends the stairs"... Thanks, Ruben :)

Belen Alcat
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Summary of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: Criterion Collection

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.
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

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