When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Jan 15, 1960

1h 51m

★ 7.9

The tree sprouts no matter how strong the wind blows.

Overview

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.

Genres

Drama

Production Companies

TOHO

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs Trailers

Cast

Keiko Yashiro

Hideko Takamine

Nobuhiko Fujisaki

Masayuki Mori

Junko Inchihashi

Reiko Dan

Kenichi Komatsu

Tatsuya Nakadai

Matsukichi Sekine

Daisuke Katō

Goda

Ganjirō Nakamura II

Minobe

Eitarō Ozawa

Yuri

Keiko Awaji

Tomoko

Chieko Nakakita

Goldfish

Jun Tatara

Matsui

Yū Fujiki

Yoshizo Yashiro

Masao Oda

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

6.9

Coffee and Cigarettes

Mar 12, 2004

An anthology of eleven vignettes featuring star-studded casts of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

7.7

The Hustler

Sep 25, 1961

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

7.0

Heavenly Creatures

Sep 12, 1994

Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.

7.2

Babel

Oct 26, 2006

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

7.4

The Remains of the Day

Nov 5, 1993

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

4.0

Blood and Steel

Dec 4, 1959

Native girl helps US Seabees free her villagers from Japanese troops.

0.0

Breakthrough for Change

Feb 7, 2015

Akira, Takeshi, Yasu, and Shun are a gang of four close friends, all of whom were core members of their high-school ekiden team. Although they were stars back in those days, having slacked up their efforts subsequently, their daily life is lackluster now that the age of forty is just around the corner. They talk at a favorite local tavern just like they used to after Akira comes home giving up his dream to become an actor. Thinking back, they have never accomplished anything but ekiden, and they have unknowingly acquired a tendency to run away from problems in life in general. The phrase they cannot help muttering to themselves is how brilliant they were in those days… Feeling dispirited, they think of participating in the Shimanto Dragon Ride. A challenge for the four men in their late thirties begins…

7.7

Memoirs of a Geisha

Dec 6, 2005

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

7.4

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Jun 3, 1992

In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.

6.4

My Blueberry Nights

Nov 28, 2007

Elizabeth has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. In order to support herself on her journey, Elizabeth picks up a series of waitress jobs along the way. As Elizabeth crosses paths with a series of lost souls whose yearnings are even greater than her own, their emotional turmoil ultimately helps her gain a greater understanding of her own problems...

6.8

Moonstruck

Dec 16, 1987

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

6.5

The Gift

Mar 16, 2000

Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others' futures⁠—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.

7.0

Desert Hearts

Oct 1, 1985

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

7.0

Chocolat

Dec 22, 2000

A mother and daughter move to a small French town where they open a chocolate shop. The town, religious and morally strict, is against them, as they represent free-thinking and indulgence. When a group of gypsies arrive by riverboat, the Mayor's prejudices lead to a crisis.

7.0

Capote

Sep 30, 2005

A biopic of writer Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book "In Cold Blood".

0.0

Stay With Me Till The Dawn

Oct 27, 2018

In order to support her son, single-mother works at a bar that operates an undisclosed adult entertainment business. One day, Ishioka Kazuya comes into the store as a customer, but Ishioka never sleeps with her, and instead just looks at the scenery outside the window.

7.4

Lost in Translation

Sep 18, 2003

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.