When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki

Professor Catherine Russell

$26.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

BFI Publishing
15 May 2025

Film theory & criticism; Film movie guides & reviews

Series: BFI Film Classics

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.

By: Professor Catherine Russell
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 188mm, Width: 134mm, Spine: 4mm
Weight: 140g
ISBN: 9781839026430
ISBN 10: 183902643X
Series: BFI Film Classics
Pages: 88
Publication Date: 15 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction 1. Diary of a Ginza Bar Hostess 2. A World of Appearances Conclusion Credits Bibliography

Catherine Russell is Professor of Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University, Canada. She is author of Classical Japanese Cinema Revisited (Bloomsbury Academic, 2011) and The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity (2008).