Mikio Naruse

Floating Clouds -- watched last night at the BFI -- is such a classic. A brutal melodrama, whose several acts of argument occured in mostly these small, cramped Japanese rooms, with a sense of claustophobia crushing the viewer slowly, by way of screams and resigned looks of people who are spent inside, as well as people who might or might not be listening just outside, an important element that might be easily missed - from hotel inn workers to the children playing (the child playing and caring for the doll was virtually the most tender act in the whole film).

I loved When A Woman Ascends The Stairs.

The title I think is a reference to the lowly place women had in post-war Japan, and the story illuminates what Keiko, an aging comfort woman was aspiring to, with the tragedy of it being her failed connection with the bar manager Komatsu who was in love with her

It's my first experience with Naruse, it is a beautiful film with a subtle heartbreaking central performance by Hideko Takamine.

Floating Clouds has in the past seemed like an esoteric Criterion Collection film to me, but now I want to watch it

There are many more Naruse movies in a similar vein that are just as good, and often with Takamine.

A fantastic guide to his films.