When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, a widow known to her patrons as Mama, decides she will open her own bar rather than remarrying after a talk with her bar manager Komatsu. She views independence as a way to honor her late husband’s memory. The decision sets her on a challenging path to secure financing and establish a new place in Ginza.

She begins approaching affluent patrons at the bar for financial help, hoping to secure enough loans to fund a new venture. The responses are tepid, and many patrons hesitate to commit. The lack of available funds makes her realize the hurdle ahead.

Meanwhile, Yuri, a former employee, opens her own bar nearby, drawing away Keiko’s regular customers. The new competition tightens the market and erodes Keiko’s prospects. The rivalry underscores Keiko’s fragile financial position.

During a lunch with Yuri, Keiko learns Yuri is deep in debt and unable to pay her creditors. Yuri confesses plans to fake a suicide to buy herself time. Keiko is shocked by both the confession and the precarity it reveals around debt and pressure.

The next day, Yuri dies, and Keiko is stunned by the sudden turn of events. Keiko sees Yuri’s creditors still harassing the mourners for money, reminding her how fragile lives and fortunes can be. The episode heightens the sense that debt shadows every choice.

Keiko is diagnosed with a peptic ulcer and retreats to her family's home to recover. She discovers she must send money to keep her brother out of jail and to fund her nephew’s polio operation. The financial obligation forces her to weigh family duties against her dream of a standalone bar.

Back at home, she acknowledges she cannot provide the money while maintaining appearances with an expensive apartment and kimono. She reluctantly agrees to help as much as she can, understanding this will delay her plan to open a new bar. The conflict between duty and ambition deepens.

After returning to the bar, a man she briefly entertained proposes marriage, offering security but exposing her vulnerability. The proposal is tempered by his status as a potential fraud. Keiko wonders if love and money can survive in her world of prestige and obligation.

She is drawn to Fujisaki, a businessman who hints he can fund her dream in exchange for a relationship and sex. He later reveals that after implying financial help, he has been transferred to Osaka and cannot abandon his family. Keiko remains torn between affection and practicality as her ambition persists.

Komatsu, who loves Keiko, gives her a stern talk about choosing her path and then proposes marriage to start a new bar together. He frames it as partnership and care, yet Keiko refuses to see it as love. The moment pushes Komatsu toward quitting the bar, still devoted but unable to stay while she resists.

Keiko declines Komatsu’s marriage proposal, insisting that a partnership would not work because they know each other too well. She cannot say aloud that she loves him. In response, Komatsu, still in love, quits the bar, leaving Keiko to run alone.

Keiko returns to work, climbing the familiar stairs of the bar and putting on a mask of happiness for her customers. Behind the smile, she remains inwardly conflicted about her feelings for Komatsu and the future she longs to build. The final image lingers on her resolve to continue, despite the costs.