When A Woman Ascends The Stairs
Director: Mikio Naruse
Starring: Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan
Japan, 1960, 1 hour 51 minutes, subtitles, B/W
Less widely-known in the West than his great contemporaries (Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa) Naruse is an unflinching realist whose films often portray a huge empathy for women struggling to survive in a treacherous world. The most poignant and modern of his films, this is a heart-breaking portrait of the widowed Keiko who supports her family running a hostess bar. The smiling mask she wears keeps her long-suppressed emotions in check but she’s faced with a stark choice – to marry or raise the money to open her open her own bar. Either way the pressure to sell herself to one of her customers is unrelenting.
“Moodily cool in its visuals, and heart-breaking in its portrayal of silent rage, this is powerful stuff” Mark Kermode, Observer
| Screenings |  |
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| Aberystwyth Arts Centre | 2012-03-28 | 14:30:00 | Buy Tickets |
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