When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) - (The Criterion Collection - #377) [DVD9] [2007]

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse’s finest hour—a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko (played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine), who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo’s very modern postwar Ginza district, who entertains businessmen after work. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs shows the largely unsung yet widely beloved master Naruse at his most socially exacting and profoundly emotional.





MOVIE:
DIRECTOR: Mikio Naruse
COUNTRY: Japan
YEAR: 1960

Cast & Credits

Cast
Keiko Yashiro Hideko Takamine
Nobuhiko Fujisaki Masayuki Mori
Junko Inchihashi Reiko Dan
Kenichi Komatsu Tatsuya Nakadai
Goda Ganjiro Nakamura
Matsukichi Sekine Daisuke Kato
Minobe Eitaro Ozawa
Yuri Keiko Awaji

Credits
Director Mikio Naruse
Screenplay Ryuzo Kikushima
Producer Ryuzo Kikushima
Music Toshiro Mayuzumi
Cinematography Masao Tamai
Production design Satoshi Chuko





DVD:
DVD RELEASE: February 20, 2007
STUDIO: Criterion
CATALOG: 377
SYSTEM: NTSC
SCREEN: 2.35:1
Black & White
AUDIO: Japanese Dolby Digital Mono
SUBTITLES: English
RUNTIME (MOVIE): 111 minutes


EXTRACTION:
ENGINE: MacTheRipper 3.0(R14m)
DVD: 1 Full Dual-Layer DVD
FILE EXTENSION: Image (.ISO)
FILE SIZE: 6.4 GB
SCANS HQ PDF(800 DPI): 32 MB

INFO:

AMAZON
WIKIPEDIA
IMDB
DVD Beaver
CRITERION


Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

* New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* Audio commentary by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie
* New video interview with Tatsuya Nakadai
* Theatrical trailer
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film scholars Audie Bock, Catherine Russell, and Phillip Lopate