Mikio Naruse was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, considered one of the leading figures of the golden age of Japanese cinema, alongside Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa. His prolific career, which began in the silent era at the Shochiku studios, reached full artistic maturity at Toho, where he directed the majority of his most celebrated works. His cinema is known for its realistic and often pessimistic portrayals of the lives of ordinary people (the *shomin-geki* genre), with a profound focus on female figures, protagonists of silent struggles against social conventions and economic hardship. His muse was the actress Hideko Takamine. His masterpieces include *Floating Clouds* (1955), *Late Chrysanthemums* (1954), and *When a Woman Ascends the Stairs* (1960). Although less celebrated internationally during his lifetime, Naruse received major awards in his home country, such as the Blue Ribbon Awards, and is today universally recognized by critics as a master for his restrained style, his rigorous visual composition, and the profound psychological analysis of his characters.