When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Blog 3)

Synopsis

Mikio Nrause's masterpiece When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is another woman-centered melodrama. Making a nightclub madam, Keiko, his protagonist, Naruse astutely delineates the ethnography of people in Ginza. Keiko is a widow who lost her husband in a car accident. According to rumors, she burnt a love letter with the ashes of her husband, an act of affection and chastity. After that, life drives her to work as madam at several bars, and, when she turns 30, she has to choose between marrying or opening her own bar. After several twists and turns, which she was almost framed into marriage with the fraud Sekine and raped (depended on the definition of rape) by Fujisakai, Keiko strives to keep her life in the Cartoon bar. Like Scarlett O'Hara's famous saying, "Tomorrow is another day" for Keiko.     

In this film, Naruse is a master in light, frame, and the rhythm of the structure. At the second half of the film, Keiko's conflict with men breaks out one by one. Naruse deftly curved out the characters and their relations. He also conducted an intricate discussion of gender role, gender relations, desires, and postwar micro-level experiences by focusing on the life of hostess or men and women involved in the Ginza sex industry (also depends on how you define sex industry).   

Themes & Character Analysis 

One prominent point of this film is Naruse's depiction of men and women. In other words, gender roles or gender relations in a geographical specific space---Ginza's nightclubs. Secondly, the film revealed the formulation of femininity and masculinity after the war, which is reflected in the structure of interpersonal interactions. 

-Gender, Sexuality, Masculinity, and performance of Femininity 

Firstly of all, men in the film are all cowards, representing the evils in this film. They are irresponsible and hypocritical. Although the setting is nightclubs, I still believe Naruse means to create weak male characters to address postwar despondency and acclaim female strengths like he did in Floating Clouds. Most of Naruse's male characters are not amicable, probably except for Koji in Yearning. By examining Keiko's interaction with women and men, we could gain insights into their relations. The over-arc argument is that everyman in Keiko's life is exploiting her (money, sexuality, and body).  

The lives of Yuri, Junko, and Keiko are the miniature of hostesses or different options and consequences for Keiko. Yuri's death and Junko's rashly compromise reflected Keiko's potential future. Keiko's character is in contrast with Yuri and Junko. Keiko is more cautious and virtuous. Yuri's tragedy made her conscious of the almost impossibility of opening a bar. Keiko, not bending to any man in the first half of the film, insists on her self-agency. It is the familial pressure to help her brother that finally pushes her to engage with Sekine. Keiko is awfully clear about her condition and the nature of this job. She vent out to her mother,  “Drinking till I’m sick, being a play thing for  men.” Her fancy apartment and clothes are all performance of her identity and femininity to attract men; she curved out a fantasy for men just to make a living. 

The film's characteristic is that not a single man could take a stand in Keiko's life. No matter how hard they act to be strong or masculine in the traditional sense, the core of men almost seems to be weak and irresponsible in life and in family. Although war is always not conspicuous in Naruse's film, it is in the background. Keiko and her husband meet after the war, and men go into bar to feel good. Is the macro-level national context related to individuals life? Maybe the general despondency (refusal to fund Keiko with money or only seeks her for her sexuality) or farce are the reflection of postwar public psychology of floating.       
  
Fujisaki basically raped Keiko, even though Keiko likes him the most. Afterwards, her claimed, “I don’t have the courage to break up my home”. He did offer Keiko bonds, but Keiko returned it to Fujisaki's wife when they were leaving for Osaka. Keiko's action relates to her dignity. She returned it because she doesn't want to tint her love or refuse to be in a trading relationship. She refuses to put her body at the site of monetary transaction.  

Komatsu thought he loves Keiko, but actually he's drew to his perception of her. A perception or image that constrains and polices her as a woman. Komatsu claimed after finding out Keiko had sex with Fujisaki, “I used to respect you”. Though for what? He only respects Mama for her chastity, which is an affirmation of heterosexual femininity. He does not yearn Keiko as an individual but an ideal archetype of woman. Even Komatsu is exploiting her.  

On the other hand, Keiko's brother is the archetype of a coward who is hypocritical and "too nice". To gauge Naruse's motive of portraying male characters as "coward" is intriguing. The brother constantly says, “it’s all my fault”, “never mind, it’s selfish of me” when asking Keiko for a large amount of money; Keiko cannot say not and is morally abducted by his narrative of "it's selfish of me". Maybe in the eye of him, his sister equals money. Even Keiko's mother and brother are exploiting her, which made Keiko's life extremely melodramatic and revealed her perseverance.  

                                       

                                   

-Club as a urban social space

Kimberly Hoang is a sociologist who studied sex industry in Vietnam under global context. In her book Dealing in Desire, she argued that nightclub constitutes a space for masculinity formulation and performance of femininity, which means hostess perform subversiveness to make the men feel desired. In the high end bar, it specifically acts as a place for Asian business men to feel more superior than western men that challenges hegemony western masculinity under the perception of global asian economy ascendency and western decline. 

Naruse's film could also be analyzed under this theoretical lens that club serves as a place for gender construction.

“In the Ginza, appearance is everything”.

“Ginza for a taste of luxury”.

“Satisfying that craving is what we’ve paid for”.    

In the film, several lines have reflected the function of Ginza, which is for customers to feel good, to feel desired and valued. Keiko as the madam at the first bar refuses to call Minobe because she doesn't want to beg a man for money. Meanwhile, to beg for a customer to come is partially elevating the men's self-esteem or the feeling of desperately needed. Thus, creating a hierarchy that satisfies men's vanity or selfhood that might be defected in reality or daily business.    

                                     

Melodrama & Film Shooting  

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is quite melodramatic. By making women his focus, Naruse revealed the struggles of hostesses in that age. Money is part of the hardships and mainly controlled in the hand of men. For Mama, to live is to depend on men, no matter how hard she works to challenge that. And Naruse's films are always sensational tragedies. This film is not exceptional, although no one died, Keiko really suffered emotionally and bodily. It is like all bad things happened to one woman and she was able to get up and face it. The turns and twists of her family relations and male-female relations of the development of Keiko's life facilitate the melodrama. Family conflicts is quite common in melodrama. Like in most of the films we have watched, for example, Story of the Last Chrysanthemum and Washington Square, family occupies the role of obstacles towards individual happinesses. Characters are bound by duties and familial morality. 

The sensational emotions in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs are intense, though Naruse excels at repressing anxiety or strong affection under the surface. Emotions are delivered by performance, especially facial expression, and the desolate industrial background or streets in Ginza. Naruse unique way of shooting conversations, shooting each actor separately and letting them pretending to talk the other, enables him to find the best lighting for emotional expression.           

In the scene that Keiko ascends the stairs, the frame is narrow and claustrophobic. Shooting from the back of Keiko, the director shows the hardship of doing this job but also the strength or preserverence Keiko must have to sustain her life, to face her state. Most of time the revelation of Keiko's inner self is subtle. Only when she break out in front of her mother, we were able to peak through her firsthand experience of working under such condition. Naruse's reserved manner of handling the story makes the sensations extremely powerful and profound.         

Naruse's main title choice is exceptional. The music is playful and jazzy, which cast irony to meaning and tone of the film. It corresponds with Keiko's attitude with life and her experience with the farces and drama; it is to face life with the idea that "one has to live as it is, even in fierce currents". The chill ambience   

Hideko Takamine is breathtaking in this film. She is such a great actress that she was able to perform different roles. In an interview with Tatsuya Nakadai, he suggests that Hideko Takamine was chosen by Naruse because of her Nihilism and her female strength that she responds to life melodrama/muddles with her head risen up. The description is exactly how Keiko managed her life at the end of the film, “But the trees line the street can sprout new buds no matter how cold the wind. I too must be just as strong as the winds gust around me.” It is this kind of femininity that Naruse celebrate in lots of his films, even though there's not always happy ending.