When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

111 mins | Drama | Jan. 15, 1960

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. 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. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

111 mins | Drama | Jan. 15, 1960

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. 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. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?
IMDb rating 8.0
Producers Toho Company, Ltd.
Original title 女が階段を上る時
Directors Sakae Hirosawa, Mikio Naruse
Writers Ryûzô Kikushima

Cast

Hideko Takamine

as Keiko Yashiro

Masayuki Mori

as Nobuhiko Fujisaki

Reiko Dan

as Junko Inchihashi

Tatsuya Nakadai

as Kenichi Komatsu, the manager

Daisuke Katō

as Matsukichi Sekine

Eitarō Ozawa

as Minobe

Keiko Awaji

as Yuri

Chieko Nakakita

as Tomoko

Jun Tatara

as Goldfish

Yū Fujiki

as Matsui (Miyuki's husband)

Masao Oda

as Yoshizo Yashiro (Keiko's brother)

Ken Mitsuda

as Sonoda

Chikako Hosokawa

as Matsuko

Sadako Sawamura

as Toshiko (Yuri's mother)

Kyū Sazanka

as Bar owner

Noriko Sengoku

as Fortune-teller

Toshiko Higuchi

as Hostess

Noriko Honma

as Mineko (Sekine's wife)

Natsuko Kahara

as Fujie (Keiko's mother)

Yutaka Sada

as Yoshikawa (kimono shop clerk)

Yoshifumi Tajima

as Electric company director

Haruko Tôgô

as Shizuko (Fujisaki's wife)

Michiyo Yokoyama

as Miyuki

Akiko Wakabayashi

as Hostess