成瀬巳喜男監督『女が階段を上る時』（BFI映画古典叢書） When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki) (Bfi Film Classics)

Russell, Catherine

BFI Publishing（2025/03発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 88 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781839026430
• DDC分類 791.430952

Full Description

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.

Contents

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