Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna Ga Kaidan O Agaru Toki)

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna Ga Kaidan O Agaru Toki)

Russell, Catherine

Paperback

Series: BFI Film Classics

Film StudiesFilm Guides & ReferenceJapanese History

Publisher Price: $15.95

ISBN10: 183902643X
ISBN13: 9781839026430
Publisher: British Film Institute
Published: Apr 17 2025
Pages: 88
Weight: 0.31
Height: 0.26 Width: 5.41 Depth: 7.43
Language: English

Mikio Naruse's When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (1960) combines high melodrama with modernist film language, telling the story of Keiko, a bar hostess struggling to succeed in Tokyo's Ginza district.

Catherine Russell's study of the film provides an in-depth analysis of Naruse's distinctive filmmaking, from his use of two-shots in confined spaces, unique lighting techniques, and his invisible and rhythmic editing style. She analyses the recurring motif of a woman's white-stockinged feet climbing stairs, considering how this symbolizes the social dynamics of the high-class Japanese sex industry that sustains hostess bar culture.

Russell goes on to argue that the film is a late woman's film which engages with the institutional barriers to woman's success in postwar Japan. She situates the film within the trajectory of Naruse's career and analyses how his social critique is balanced with an aestheticization of a harsh and brutally gendered world, creating an affective tension that is symptomatic of Naruse's own position as an industrial worker.

Also from

Russell, Catherine

View All

Also in

Film Guides & Reference

View All