Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki

Jun 25 1963 Not Rated 1h 51m
Drama

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.

Plot

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.

Written by

Ryûzô Kikushima

Directed by

Mikio Naruse

Cast

Hideko Takamine, Tatsuya Nakadai, Masayuki Mori

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

Japan

Production Companies

Toho

Languages

Awards

N/A

Trailers
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Trailer
Scores
# of Votes
5,063
Average Rating
8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA