When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse, 1960)

In his invaluable e-book A Mikio Naruse Companion, Dan Sallitt mentions that he does not consider When a Woman Ascends the Stairs to be a major work, and evinces a bit of confusion at the fact that this the Naruse film that made the strongest inroads with Western audiences. While I agree with Dan about the film's shortcomings -- it is rather narratively deterministic -- I'm not surprised that this was Naruse's biggest success outside of Japan. Elements that Dan would no doubt deleterious are precisely those that worked in its favor, most notably the transitional voiceover moments in which Keiko (Hideko Takamine) pretty much outlines the parameters of Ginza and the bar-girl rituals for the uninitiated. 

Other Naruse films are more trusting, as they expect the non-Japanese viewer to intuit these social rules through observation. But for most of its running time, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs uses its absolute focus on Keiko to articulate the desperation and shattered dreams of the postwar bar hostess, and the fact that as Keiko approaches the ripe old age of 30, her already narrow options are closing in. She can open her own bar, thereby attaining the status of a semi-reputable entrepreneur, or she can land a marriage proposal and return to the bourgeois home space.

Naruse even goes so far as to encapsulate this sordid life in a single controlling metaphor. Keiko explains (in voiceover) that each time she goes up the stairs to the bar where she works, it's as though a little part of her dies. She hopes against hope that each time she ascends the stairs will be her last. Within that overriding structure -- Keiko's dream of a better life -- the film is actually somewhat episodic, depicting a broad web of interrelated social actors whose fortunes and deceptions collide with Keiko's. No one event seals her doom. It is the accumulation of misfortunes, all accompanied by the steady forward propulsion of the bar hostess's expiry date, that combine to crush this woman's strength and integrity.

As the film opens, Keiko (referred to as "Mama" by everyone but her family)  is being upbraided because the bar where she works as head hostess is on the decline. More and more of their well-heeled professional clients are headed to a new bar run by Yuri (Keiko Awaji), a former colleague. It is implied that Yuri's bar goes "all the way," providing clandestine prostitution. As Keiko struggles to regain her clientele, she meets Yuri who confesses that despite the bar's apparent success, she is deeply in debt. She tells Keiko she plans to fake a suicide attempt, but in fact Yuri dies. 

This is the first of several events in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs that broaches the problem of truth and deception (and self-deception). We will never know whether Yuri lied to Keiko, and planned to commit suicide all along, or if she only meant to stage a suicide attempt and accidentally overdosed. This conflict between reality and perception is the primary engine of Naruse's film. For example, Keiko is a widow who is said to have placed a letter with her husband's body prior to cremation, pledging to never love another man. When asked directly, she denies this, but later on she admits that it is true. As insignificant as it may seem, this pledge determines how others see Keiko's unwillingness to take a "patron," and as a result the status of her virtue. 

There is a frequent refrain in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, that Keiko is too beautiful, poised, and upstanding to belong in the world of Ginza. The man who places her highest upon this pedestal, bar manager Komatsu (Tatsuya Nakadai), seems most pleased to see her break her resolve, since it suggests that she is no better than him and belongs in this sullied world. But Keiko herself struggles to reconcile her social position with her private morality. She is in love with a regular customer, the banker Fujisaki (Masayuki Mori), but knows he is married. She plans to settle for another suitor, factory owner Sekine (Daisuke Katō), but in the end she is deceived by both men. 

It's not as though Keiko could have known how these faux-courtships would end. But her willingness to follow through with either of them hinges on a basic self-deception. Against all odds, Keiko believes she has options, because being a woman of virtue ought to afford her some social capital in this male-driven, money-obsessed world. In fact this is completely untrue, and Keiko ends up pretty much where she started. Although not exactly. As she climbs the stairs at the end of the film, returning to the job that cheapens her, she is now saddled with the knowledge that there is no way out. And eventually, even the life of the bar hostess will be closed to her. What then?