Onna ga kaidao agaru toki

They”re behind the counter, they”re always cheerful and they flirt with the men at the bar, whose sake or whiskey glasses are hardly ever left empty for long. Mama-san Keiko, a thirty-year old widow, realizes that owning a bar is the only way to escape the path to prostitution. She hopes to get the necessary money together from a protector, but then one of her clients offers himself as a suitor.

Director Mikio Naruse carefully depicted the life of a woman who tries to overcome social restrictions, but fails to escape her fate. He filmed his favourite actress Hideko Takamine – Naruse made seventeen films with her – in a sequence of wide shots and semi close-ups, an approach reminiscent of the method of that other great master of Japanese cinema, Yasijuro Ozu. Where Ozu opted for contemplative stillness, Naruse stressed the oppressed psychology of his characters: Keiko”s efforts end in a crescendo of disillusionment.