30 May 2014

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Japan, 1960)

This is the story of Mama, a.k.a. Keiko, a middle-aged bar hostess who must choose to either get married or buy a bar of her own. Her family hounds her for money, her customers for her attention, and she is continually in debt. The life of a bar hostess is examined as well as the way in which the system traps and sometimes kills those in it.

Through smoky hostess clubs and deep pitfalls of debts we follow a woman who tries to break free from the chains that holds her, played by Hideko Takamine (Twenty-Four Eyes). It's a great portrayal of a woman's role in a society such as Tokyo in the fifties, were the biggest lust of all were the lust for money. 

Genre: Drama


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