Synopsis: 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.

Language: Japanese

Country of Origin: Japan

Production Year: 1960

Reviews:

• "Magnificent melodrama - this could give heartbreak lessons to Fassbinder and Sirk.", The Village Voice
• "Beguilingly poetic!", New York Magazine