is a 1960 Japanese

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

directed by

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, ...

Plot

Keiko (called "

Mama Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places *Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement ...

" by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in

Ginza Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous intern ...

. Realizing she is getting older, she decides after talking to her bar manager, Komatsu, that she wants to open her own bar rather than remarrying and dishonoring her late husband to whose memory she is still devoted. To accomplish this, she must secure loans from some affluent patrons who frequent her bar, but has little success. Meanwhile, Yuri, a former employee, has opened up her own bar nearby, consequently taking away most of Keiko's former customers. She scouts locations for her own bar with a confidant of her bar, Junko, undecided as to where she will open up. While Keiko has lunch with Yuri, whom she believes is doing well in her enterprise, Yuri reveals that she is deep in debt and cannot afford to pay off her creditors. She tells Keiko she plans to fake a suicide to keep her creditors at bay. Keiko is shocked to learn the next day that Yuri has actually died, and that she had either planned her death all along or had misjudged the amount of sleeping pills to take. She is shocked to see Yuri's creditors dunning her family for money while still in mourning. After Keiko is diagnosed with a

peptic ulcer Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...

, she retreats to her family's home to recover. It is revealed that she must give them money to keep her brother out of jail while also paying for an operation that her nephew, who was crippled by

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

, needs in order to walk again. Keiko tells them she can not afford to give them money as she must keep up appearances with an expensive apartment and kimono but reluctantly agrees, realizing this will forestall any plan to open her own bar. After Keiko returns to her bar to work, a man she briefly entertains proposes to her. When he turns out to be a fraud, she sets her sights on Fujisaki, a businessman interested in her. While promising to give her money after sleeping with her, he tells her he has been transferred to Osaka for work and cannot abandon his family. Keiko is given a stern lecture by Komatsu, who loves Keiko but has made no previous attempt to express this due to his respect for her reverence for her dead husband and her resolve to not to sleep with other men. He asks Keiko to marry him and open a new bar together. However, she declines, saying that a marriage like this could not work since "they know each other too well", and, though she can't bring herself to say it, loves the married Fujisaki. Still in love with Keiko, Komatsu quits the bar after she refuses his marriage proposal. Keiko returns again to work, ascending the stairs, pretending to be happy.

Cast

Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) ...

as Keiko Yashiro * Masayuki Mori as Nobuhiko Fujisaki *

Reiko Dan , real name , was a Japanese actress. She appeared in multiple films between 1957 and 1974, such as ''Sanjuro'' and ''Red Beard is a 1965 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration ...

as Junko Inchihashi *

Tatsuya Nakadai is a Japanese film actor. He was featured in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including ''The Human Condition'' trilogy, wherein he starred as the lead character Kaji, plus ''Harakiri'', ''Samurai Rebellion'' and ''Kwaidan''. Nakadai wor ...

as Kenichi Komatsu, Keiko's manager *

Daisuke Katō was a Japanese actor. He appeared in over 200 films, including Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'', ''Rashomon'', ''Yojimbo'', and ''Ikiru''. He also worked repeatedly for noted directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi. ...

as Matsukichi Sekine *

Nakamura Ganjirō II was a Japanese kabuki and film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1941 and 1980, directed by notable filmmakers such as Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed t ...

as Goda *

Eitaro Ozawa , also credited as Sakae Ozawa (小沢栄), was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1988, directed by notable filmmakers such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Kaneto Shindō. Selected fi ...

as Minobe *

Keiko Awaji was a Japanese film actress. Notable highlights of her career were an appearance in Akira Kurosawa's ''Stray Dog'', and a role as Kimiko in '' The Bridges at Toko-Ri'', in which she appeared alongside William Holden and Mickey Rooney. Her firs ...

as Yuri *

Kyū Sazanka was a Japanese actor. Career Sazanka debuted as a singer in Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temp ...

as Bar owner *

Noriko Sengoku , known by her stage name , was a Japanese film and television actress active primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. She made her film debut in 1947 and starred in several of Akira Kurosawa's early films such as ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), '' The Quiet ...

as Fortune-teller * Chieko Nakakita as Tomoko

Home media

In 2007,

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

released a one-disc Region 1 DVD edition. Special features included an audio commentary by

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also dir ...

, a new interview with

, the theatrical trailer and new English subtitle translation. The edition also included a booklet containing essays by

Phillip Lopate Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate. Early life Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA degr ...

, Catherine Russell,

Audie Bock Audie Elizabeth Bock (born October 15, 1946) is an American film scholar and politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1999 to 2000, and was elected to the Sarasota County, Florida Soil and Water Conservation District in 2018. S ...

, and

References

External links

* * *
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
' at the

Japanese Movie Database The , more commonly known as simply JMDb, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database but lists only those films initially released in Japan. Y. ...

*
''When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: They Endure''
an essay by

at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:When A Woman Ascends The Stairs 1960 films 1960 drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Mikio Naruse Japanese drama films 1960s Japanese-language films Films shot in Tokyo Films with screenplays by Ryuzo Kikushima Films produced by Ryuzo Kikushima 1960s Japanese films