Shosho is a maid in a swanky night-spot when she's spotted dancing by the club's rakish proprietor, Valentine Wilbur. Soon Shosho has usurped Mabel as the star dancer and object of Valentine's affections, setting the scene for a dramatic denouement. A tenderly restored work, with a new musical score by Neil Brand, and a truly hypnotic early screen goddess in the form of Anna May Wong. find out more...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece. find out more...