Scandal (1950 film)
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| Scandal 醜聞 |
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 Original Japanese poster |
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| Directed by | Akira Kurosawa |
| Produced by | Takashi Koide |
| Written by | Akira Kurosawa Ryuzo Kikushima |
| Starring | Toshirō Mifune Takashi Shimura Shirley Yamaguchi |
| Music by | Fumio Hayasaka |
| Distributed by | Shochiku Co. Ltd. |
| Release date(s) | 30 April 1950 |
| Running time | 104-5 min. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Scandal (醜聞 Sukyandaru?, aka Shubun[1]) is a Japanese film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1950.The film stars Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Shirley Yamaguchi. It is in black-and-white and runs 104 minutes.
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[edit] Plot
Ichiro Aoye (Toshirō Mifune), a famous young painter, accidentally meets a famous young singer, Miyako Saijo (Shirley Yamaguchi) whilst holidaying in the mountains. After discovering they are both staying at the same inn he offers to give her a ride to where they are staying. On the way, they are spotted by photographers for the tabloid magazine 'Amour', who follow the two. As Saijo refuses the photographers an interview they plot their revenge by taking a photograph of the couple having an innocent discussion and print it under the headline 'The Love Story of Miyako Saijo'. During the subsequent media circus, Aoye is approached by a lawyer, Hiruta (Takashi Shimura), who convinces him to sue the magazine. Aoye agrees but Hiruta, desperate for money to buy gifts for his bedridden daughter Masako (Yôko Katsuragi), accepts a bribe from the editor of the magazine to throw the trial. After spending a drunken evening out with Aoye, Hiruta has a revelation that it is not too late to do the right thing and, struck by the kindness of Aoye and Saijo towards his Masako, and Masako's own disgust at the way he is handling the case, Hiruta confesses all and, though he is disbarred, his reputation is saved and 'Amour' loses the case. The film ends on a sad note with the death of Masako.
[edit] Commentary
Scandal was described by Kurosawa himself as a protest film about "the rise of the press in Japan and its habitual confusion of freedom with license." Kurosawa was noted for being exceptionally wary of the press in general (and didn't read any criticism of his own work, whether positive or negative), a situation which was not aided when he was romantically linked with the actress Hideko Takamine (with whom he had worked on the 1941 film Horses), with the media claiming it was an unrequited love. As a fiercely private individual this was of particular annoyance to Kurosawa. It perhaps isn't coincidental that Mifune's character in the film is a painter - Kurosawa had toyed with the idea of becoming a painter before becoming a director (a passion he retained during his life - he was famous for often painting the storyboards for his films) and is probably indicative of the amount of personal involvement Kurosawa had with the film.
[edit] Reception
Scandal is often seen as one of the lesser entrants in the Kurosawa canon by critics, and is often condemned for being overly black-and-white in its portyal of journalists and for having lightweight central characters, with the performances of Mifune and Yamaguchi often criticised. The reputation of the film is not helped by the fact it was followed by Rashomon, Kurosawa's breakthrough film that is often considered one of the greatest films of all time. On the plus side, Takeshi Shimura's performance as Hiruta has been widely praised, and it is seen as a prototype for his role as Watanabe in Ikiru.
[edit] External links
- Scandal at the Internet Movie Database
- Scandal at Rotten Tomatoes
- Scandal (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database
[edit] References
- ^ The Japanese title "醜聞" is a kanji word which is pronounced "Shubun" in standard Japanese. However the furigana "スキャンダル sukyandaru" is officially added to the Japanese title. Shochiku official web site
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