When A Woman Ascends The Stairs

When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (1960) is the first Mikio Naruse film I've seen, so I don't have a strong sense of what it is that makes it a Naruse film. In fact, it seems like the kind of story-the struggles of a woman to find the balance of happiness and survival as a widower in her 30s, that would have been attractive to Mizoguchi. But it seems that according to Donald Richie's narration that the fact that Naruse grew up impoverished unlike Kurosawa or Mizoguchi and that was reflected in the stories he chose to bring to the screen. Hideko Takamine plays a widow who supports her mother and brother with her job as a hostess at a Ginza bar. She doesn't enjoy the atmosphere or drinking so she struggles to get by in this occupation. It is understood that she should marry or open her own bar at his stage of her life. She tries both avenues to avail and finds herself ascending the stair to work at he end as in the beginning of the film. It would seem his filming style is more subdued than that of directors like Mizoguchi and Kurosawa, but there are several interesting tracking shots and is probably more closer in style to the stagnant style of Ozu. I enjoyed this enough to want to see more of his films to see why he is held in such high regard.

Comments

[ted]

After Ozu, Naruse is perhaps my favorite Japanese director. "Floating Clous" is simply briliant.

Most of the films I own are from the UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mikio-Naruse-Collection-Haruko-Sugimura/dp/B000WM9WL4/ref=pd_cp_d_h__3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Naruse-Repast-Mountain-Flowing-Masters/dp/B000I5XN7O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1324130113&sr=8-2

Happy to lend you mine, after I return in February...

[MC]

Hey Ted, thanks for the offer. I saw that Naruse's movies were available in England. This year Criterion released a box set of his silent films. I would like to see these titles get the Criterion treatment as well.