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For this Friday Movie Night, first up is When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), a Japanese drama from renowned auteur Mikio Naruse, whose work has never been featured before on ‘tube, despite being often cited as a rival Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, whose work we have watched many times. That changes tonight. The film follows a 30-year-old widowed hostess of a bar the seedy Tokyo neighborhood of Ginza, forced into work in the face of financial ruin, and exposed to all of the worst tendencies of structural misogyny and predatory men. This is arguably Naruse’s magnum opus, and one of the most acclaimed Japanese films of the 1960s.

After that is Buster Keaton’s 18-minute slapstick short The Frozen North (1922), which features Buster as a ne’er-do-well getting up to all kinds of criminal mischief in a frigid Alaskan town, shooting gamblers and terrorizing the townspeople in his ruthless quest for money. Hilarity ensues as his plans go askew. Yes, Buster plays a villain this time. It’s more Buster; that’s good enough for me.

Last is The Sheep Detectives (2026), a mystery-comedy starring Hugh Jackman as a sheep farmer who reads detective novels to his flock every night, assuming they are too stupid to understand. Joke’s on him, because not only have they absorbed all of the knowledge from the books, they can also talk among themselves, and put their newfound investigative skills to use when the farmer is poisoned. Whodunit? Guess we’ll see. Director Kyle Balda also helmed, uhh, Minions (2015); this is generally considered his best work to date, having received excellent reviews, and some box-office success, too. Reviews often compare this film favorably to Babe (1995).

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: https://letterboxd.com/film/when-a-woman-ascends-the-stairs/
• The Frozen North: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-frozen-north/
• The Sheep Detectives: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-sheep-detectives/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/158687
• The Sheep Detectives: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/34360

CWs for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs:

• Misogyny.
• Implied sexual assault. Not depicted.
• Prostitution.
• Gaslighting.
• Vomiting.

CWs for The Sheep Detectives:

• Child abandonment.
• Someone leaves without saying goodbye.
• Abused character forgives their abuser.
• Stalking.
• Deaths of animals.
• Animal corpses.
• Cruelty to animals.
• Sad animals.
• Death of pet.
• Dogfighting.
• Animal abandonment.
• Someone is drugged.
• Someone is physically restrained.
• Death of non-human.
• Suicide.
• Death of parent.
• Ghosts.
• Prison scene.
• Dissociation.
• Nervous breakdown.
• Flashing lights.
• Someone is watched without their knowledge.
• Discussion of religion.
• Chronic illness.
• Car crash.
• Honking horns.
• Screeching tires.
• Shaving.
• Unconsciousness.

Links to movies:

• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: https://tankie.tube/w/nhEov2ym5yr5dCdNv9GMii
• The Frozen North: https://tankie.tube/w/gqAmCw98y9ko1j97mY7LEf
• The Sheep Detectives: https://tankie.tube/w/xb4XqCeCjafpBRi7uRvozk