Sound of the Mountain

Shingo, an aging businessman, sees the marriage of his son Shuichi and his daughter-in-law Kikuko, who live in the same household, fall apart due to Shuichi's coldness and adulterous behaviour. Flattered by Kikuko's overt adoration for him, he tries to act as a cornerstone for her. His own daughter Fusako, who left her husband and moved back into her parents' home with her children, blames Shingo for her arranged and failed marriage and for his preference of Kikuko over her. Shingo accompanies Kikuko to a hospital visit, only to learn later that she aborted the child she expected from Shuichi. A secretary from Shingo's company helps him to find Kinu, Shuichi's mistress and an independent businesswoman, who tells him of his son's abusive behaviour. Kikuko finally decides to divorce her husband and, meeting Shingo in a park, tells her father-in-law that she wants to try to live a life on her own.

• Setsuko Hara as Kikuko Ogata
• Sō Yamamura as Shingo Ogata
• Ken Uehara as Shuichi Ogata
• Yōko Sugi as Hideko Tanizaki
• Teruko Nagaoka as Yasuko
• Yatsuko Tan'ami as Ikeda
• Chieko Nakakita as Fusako Aihara
• Rieko Sumi as Kinuko (Kinu)

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell sees Sound of the Mountain as a woman's film, as it reduces the book's perspective of Shingo in favour of the female characters who, with the exception of the passive Kikuko, act outspoken and independently, "trying to make their way in a world in which men like Shuichi have been psychologically destroyed by the war".{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Catherine |date=2011 |title=Classical Japanese Cinema Revisited |location=New York |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4411-1681-9}} The last scene suggests the possibility of change for Kikuko, achieving a positive resolution of her problems.{{cite book |last=Jacoby |first=Alexander |date=2008 |title=Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day |location=Berkeley |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-933330-53-2}}

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs was screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1981,{{cite web|url=https://bampfa.org/event/sound-mountain-yama-no-oto |title=Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto) |website=BAMPFA |date=22 December 2014 |access-date=20 July 2023}} at the Museum of Modern Art in 1985{{cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/6228/releases/MOMA_1985_0082_79.pdf |title=Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23 |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=20 July 2023}} and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2005{{cite web|url=https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/sound-of-the-mountain-yama-no-oto-2005-10 |title=Sound of the Mountain AKA The Thunder of the Mountain |website=Harvard Film Archive |date=9 October 2005 |access-date=20 July 2023}} as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse.

• 1954: Mainichi Film Award for Best Actor Sō Yamamura (for Sound of the Mountain and Kuroi ushio){{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/009.html |title=毎日映画コンクール 第9回（1954年） |website=Mainichi |language=ja |access-date=20 July 2023}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb title|0047682}}
• {{cite web |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2001/cteq/mountain/ |title=Sound of the Mountain: The Beauty of Pessimism |last=Sødtholt |first=Dag |date=November 2001 |website=Senses of Cinema |access-date=20 January 2021}}

{{Mikio Naruse}}

{{Yasunari Kawabata}}

Category:1954 films

Category:1954 drama films

Category:Japanese drama films

Category:Japanese black-and-white films

Category:Films based on Japanese novels

Category:Films based on works by Yasunari Kawabata

Category:Toho films

Category:Films directed by Mikio Naruse

Category:Films produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto

Category:Films scored by Ichirō Saitō

Category:1950s Japanese films