“Sorry. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Komatsu's wishes are as empty as his hands as he plays bartender in a run down club. Keiko, a middle-aged bar hostess who must choose to either get married or buy a bar of her own. After Mother (1952), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), and Flowing (1956), he was ready to tackle the newly prosperous, go-getter Japan. Pascale Ferran, Cédric Klapisch, Laurent Cantet (directors) and Alain Rocca.Directors that are members of the association La Cinémathèque des Réalisateurs. If Mikio Naruse‘s Floating Clouds is a film about making peace with the war years, then When a Woman Who Ascends The Stairs is a far more forward-thinking endeavor. Drawing on influences ranging from classic Hollywood to cartoons, Jacques Rivette’s uncategorizable masterpiece plunges viewers into a world shaped by the friendship and imagination shared by two soul sisters. Keiko, also known as mama, is one of those truly unforgettable characters who you swear must exist somewhere out there in the real world. Her voice-overs, on the steps or during documentary-style cutaways of Tokyo, tend to describe in general terms the daily life of the Ginza district and the bar hostess’s lot. The stairs in question are those of a bar in the red-light district of Tokyo and the woman who ascends them is Mama-San, the bar's chief hostess, but the stairs may just as well be those of a brothel for the girls who work these bars are basically prostitutes, (even in … Kurosawa admiringly singled out Naruse’s skill as an editor, and we see plenty of evidence here. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs subtitles. Theatrical trailer for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. Both Junko and Komatsu's youth prove to be of great contrast to Keiko and her wisdom of thiry years. Either path seems to involve a sacrifice of independence. When A Woman Ascends the Stairs . [When a Woman Ascends the Stairs] TakamineEvery afternoon, a young widow named Keiko (Hideko Takamine) walks from her modest apartment to her job as a senior hostess in a Ginza bar. YouTube. The film’s time structure thus runs on dual tracks: first, the forward linear narrative, packed with incident (suicide, illness, marriage proposals, deceptions, one-night stands, abandonment); and second, the repeated figure of the stairs, with its philosophical musings, when the film catches its breath and loops back, making you understand that in a sense Keiko is getting nowhere, except in her awareness of what she is up against. Fri 29 Jun 2007 18.54 EDT. Kin has saved her money, and has become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days cold-heartedly collecting ... See full summary ». In some ways mismatched to the job, since she does not like liquor, refuses to sleep around, and has a proud, choosy character, she stands out from the stereotypical bar girl, which is why so many of the male characters find her a challenge and want to seduce her. A tragic social drama set in post war Japan and concerns a lonely woman trying to find purpose and stability in a devastated Tokyo. After he died, retrospectives of his work began to tour Europe and America; they excited the enthusiasm of knowledgeable cinephiles and were repeated in periodic cycles; a body of criticism grew around him, and now his films are issued worldwide on DVD. Overview Overview Related Related. Her business is heavily in debt. Η ιστορία της Keiko μιας γκέισας που θα πρέπει να διαλέξει αν θα παντρευτεί ή αν θα αγοράσει το δικό της μπαρ. 111 min Drama Imdb: 8.2 (3,218 votes) Watch Trailer Servers. Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1960 • Japan Starring Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan 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. For instance, when she flings the words “I hate you” at her admirer-­manager, the balance in sympathy shifts to him for the moment: he has done nothing to deserve such scorn. Country: Japan. Subscribe to watch. His work, almost all of which is set in the contemporary era, is about people (very often women) of limited means trying to keep their heads above water, escape domestic quagmires, and realize their dreams in a world rife with betrayals and self-betrayals. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Japonsko 1960. Komatsu, Keiko's manager, a young man smitten by Keiko's enchanting beauty and is reduced to just imagining a future alongside his beloved. A man falls in love with the widow of a man he killed in a car accident. To escape having to entertain men for the rest of her life, she will have to remarry of become the proprietor of a bar. The dilemma is that she is approaching an age when her looks might be expected to fade, and so she is encouraged either to start her own bar or to get married. Keiko, a middle-aged bar hostess who must choose to either get married or buy a bar of her own. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs . This is the story of Mama, a.k.a. This film has an outstanding lead and supporting cast, and ofcourse a great story centering on the day by day account of the life of a bar woman who struggles to maintain her pride. Title Screen : Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions: Screenshots: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Jp.) Certainly Keiko has more of a conscience than the sleazy businessman Minobe, who wastes no time collecting his debts when his mistress Yuri commits suicide, or the opportunistic bar girl who swoops in to resell the suicide’s kimonos. With Hideko Takamine, Tatsuya Nakadai, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan. "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs" is set in a world that seems just as polished and sophisticated as Naruse's craftsmanship when it comes to films. August 6, 2007 - 10:09 Tom Vincent. Get info about new releases, essays and interviews on the Current, Top 10 lists, and sales. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs A departure of sorts from the usually drab, lower-middle-class, scarcity environments, but the preference for enlightened stoicism over glib redemption is pure Naruse. Was this review helpful to you? Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage, all she does is cook and clean for her husband. The life of a bar hostess is examined as well as the way in which the system traps and sometimes kills those in it. When A Woman Ascends the Stairs is now streaming as part of BFI’s Japan 2020 lineup. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) Trailer. Like Roberto Rossellini, another filmmaker of unfailing intelligence, Naruse directs facts; he constructs the image only enough to get its essential meaning across. After a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction. Golden Globes, "Twin Peaks," World Poll, New "Death Race". When Keiko decides to accept Sekine’s marriage proposal, we cheer her willingness to compromise by accepting this homely but essentially good-hearted man—only to discover he is not what he appears. A middle-aged bar hostess, constantly in debt, is faced with numerous social constraints and challenges posed to her by her family, customers and friends. When the long-suffering manager discovers she has slept with Fujisaki, he throws the evidence in her face: “I used to respect you,” he says. There are no bravura 360-degree camera movements, but there are subtle little tracking shots of Keiko walking through Tokyo, with or without company; and when Keiko goes up the stairs to her bar, the camera delicately ascends with her for just two seconds. She weeps for herself, but do we weep for and with her? Compassionate and courteous, she is affectionately called “mama” by the younger hostesses who see her graciousness and charm as an unattainable ideal. About the author Phillip O'Connor A fan of anime, it helped me to find Hong Kong Action films and later Japanese and Korean cinema. Filmbox. The crisp black-and-white CinemaScope, xylophone-inflected jazz score, and modernist bar interiors give When a Woman Ascends the Stairs a glamorous, International Style sheen; its taste of gin and bitters goes down like a dry martini. 1960. When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (Japan 1960, dir. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Chung, they all became my guides to Asian cinema. Naruse Mikio) has just about everything I could wish for in a movie – a beautiful heroine presented in a B+W ‘Scope melodrama in which she must make almost impossible decisions about how to gain her independence in patriarchal Japan. She is both strong, graceful and intelligent. When a woman ascends the stairs, she steps into the den of lions. Her family hounds her for money, her customers for her attention, and she is continually in debt. Als ze niet haar hele leven mannen wil vermaken, zal ze moeten hertrouwen of eigenares worden. She plays Keiko, a widow who supports herself as a bar madam, the chief attraction in whatever bar she works, by virtue of her beauty and superior refinement (hence the honorific Mama). All of the Films Joining Filmstruck’s Criterion Channel This April, Rushes. Naruse’s gift here is being able to keep alive surprise and the fresh possibility of hope, even as you know deep down that he’s going to snatch most of that hope away. … What is it about Naruse’s films that touches this belated responsive chord? Asked to help pay for an operation that would correct her nephew’s polio, she discards the plea as too expensive, and we never do find out if she springs for the loan. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (女が階段を上る時, Onna ga kaidan o noboru toki) is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. iDnes Kino. Don't worry, this movie's initially slow pace blossoms with enough twists and surprises to captivate and reward modern viewers.Other characters to compare Keiko to is Junko, a much younger bar girl, who manages to work the system to her financial advantage. Director: Mikio Naruse. They are not flashy, but they ring true, they appeal to our demanding intelligence, our sense of the rigor of daily life; and, seen in bulk, they draw us into an astonishingly consistent, psychologically resonant universe. Overview. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. And though he had been making films starting from the silent era, Naruse had no trouble adjusting his objective style to a cooler, sixties mode. (Often, the cutting underscores the cruelty, selfishness, and indifference of modern life, every man for himself, but not always.) An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman. 1960 111 mins. Mikio Naruse’s best-known film is a masterful study of Ginza hostess struggling under constant pressures to compromise her honour. Use the HTML below. But appearances can be deceptive, and in this world we follow the life of Keiko. Posted in Film & Television, Geo | Tagged apart from you, every-night dreams, gender, Japan, japanese cinema, japanese film, michael koresky, mikio naruse, mono no aware, no blood relation, phillip lopate, postwar japan, shochiku studios, silent film, when a woman ascends the stairs | 1 Comment With novelistic intimacy, Rahmin Bahrani’s follow-up to Man Push Cart illuminates the economic desperation hiding in plain sight in contemporary America. By marrying the glamour of golden-age Hollywood to a quicksilver formal daring influenced by a wide range of artists, the Hong Kong auteur became one of the coolest and most beloved filmmakers in the world in the 1990s. Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. This is the story of Mama, a.k.a. As he famously said about his characters: “If they move even a little they quickly hit the wall.” That this rather grim vision should prove delightful in the viewing remains an enigma. Zavřít. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Hideko Takamine Masayuki Mori Reiko Dan (1963) As her youth slips away, a virtuous geisha (Hideko Takamine) ponders whether … In a sense, she represents a more traditional Japanese set of values, in contrast to the mod, pecuniary libertinism sprouting up around her. 24 of 30 people found this review helpful. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, made in 1959, is the culmination of a run of masterpieces Naruse reeled off in the 1950s. View production, box office, & company info. Written by Roy Stafford Posted in Japanese Cinema, Melodrama Tagged with Naruse 3 comments. One of the most striking debuts in film history, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s unconventional picaresque forged new aesthetic paths for African cinema with its dreamlike narrative, discontinuous editing, and jagged soundscapes. This FAQ is empty. Click to Play. Expressive lighting touches, like the sudden luminosity of Takamine’s face in the fortune-telling scene, or after she sleeps with Fujisaki, are made more effective by their rarity. She comes across at times as self-righteous, at other times as hard. Phillip Lopate’s latest book is A Mother’s Tale. Naruse’s filming style, never ostentatious, shows exquisite tact. Take a look ahead at all the major movie releases coming to theaters and streaming this season. When A Woman Ascends the Stairs. I enjoyed ’When a Woman Ascends the Stairs’ a lot too. Another door has closed in Keiko’s face. Weduwe Keiko is een ‘mama-san’, barvrouw in de rosse buurt van Tokio. But Otsuta ... See full summary ». When a Woman Ascends the Stairs ... Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Sign up for our newsletter. I’m not that good,” she mutters. The film keeps dwelling on that face, Keiko/Takamine’s exquisite instrument, registering revulsion or censure. Here are some of our favorite films that sparked the popularity of these danceable Holi numbers. Rich businessmen, cocktails and soft jazz playing in the background. He, alongside other people who are part of Keiko's life will slowly switch roles from friends, patrons and protector, Komatsu, into those who will contribute to the torture in Keiko's life. ... Nejúspěšnější. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. (1960). But it would be too simple to see Keiko as the saint in a den of sinners. After Mother (1952), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955), and Flowing (1956), he was ready to tackle the newly prosperous, go-getter Japan. For a director whose vision is so frequently called pessimistic, what continuously engages and enthralls in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a lightness of touch, deft and coolly understated, like its cocktail jazz score. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. MyPrime. During his lifetime (1905–69), Naruse toiled away at his craft largely unsung, though respected by his peers, making more than eighty pictures. A businessman clashes with his elder daughter over her choice of a husband. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. For information, go to http://www.japan1960.blogspot.com Prima Video. What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older. No one is that good—or that evil—in a Naruse movie; he neither ennobles nor demeans, but shows realistically the ways that we are all mixed, contradictory creatures. Every cut conveys the solitary partiality of each character’s viewpoint, even the most minor. A middle-aged bar hostess, constantly in debt, is faced with numerous social constraints and challenges posed to her by her family, customers and friends. Další Be2Can. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (女が階段を上る時, Onna ga kaidan o noboru toki) is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. My favourite piece of film from that era, when Japan’s economy turned a corner and the ‘economic miracle’ became a reality, is the first ten minutes of Kon Ichikawa’s ‘Tokyo Olympiad’, from 1964. After the marriage plan with Sekine blows up, she gets drunk and throws herself at Fujisaki. The festival of colours wouldn't be complete without the perfect dance playlist for your Holi party. Obbod. 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