Scandal (1950)

Director: Akira Kurosawa                             Writers: Ryûzô Kikushima & Akira Kurosawa
Film Score: Fumio Hayasaka                       Cinematography: Toshio Ubukata
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Shirley Yamaguchi, Yôko Katsuragi and Takashi Shimura

Early in his life Akira Kurosawa trained as a painter, so it’s natural that his protagonist in this story would be one too. In Scandal Toshirô Mifune, in one of his early roles, plays a painter who drives around on a motorcycle. While up in the mountains working he meets famous singer Shirley Yamaguchi and the two strike up a casual friendship. But the next morning when the two are out on her balcony photographers from a tabloid take their picture and create a fictional romance out of it. The made-up story is a sensationalized and the magazine is sells tens of thousands of copies. Imagine Mifune’s surprise when he gets back into town and sees his picture plastered on every billboard. He goes to the magazine and takes a swing at the editor, then decides to take him to court.

Thus begins a war of words in the press, with each side calling the other a liar. But if both Mifune and Yamaguchi sue, it would be pretty clear who is telling the truth. Unfortunately Yamaguchi’s mother is old fashioned and refuses to let her daughter participate in the court case and so Mifune must go it alone. When attorney Takashi Shimura shows up at his door he offers to take on the case for free. Mifune then goes to Shimura’s house to see what he’s like and finds his daughter there, Yôko Katsuragi, in bed with tuberculosis. He is charmed by her and gives the case to Shimura, but fails to understand that Shimura has problems of his own, gambling among them, and that he winds up falling under the control of the publisher rather than working for his client.

Like all of Kurosawa’s films this is a character study. Shimura believes himself to be a bad person with no moral center, and so has little motivation to change. Even his beautiful daughter can’t help him. Mifune simply winds up being the catalyst for the other characters. Yamaguchi must find her own way, despite what her parents think. And the publisher of the tabloid needs Mifune in an ironic way, to show him that he can’t simply get away with anything he wants to. I haven’t watched a lot of Japanese films and I always assumed that Toshirô Mifune’s head scratching was part of his samurai character, but apparently it’s simply part of his acting style because he does it here too. The guy is just a delight to watch. In the midst of simpering toadies or cowardly cheats, he is a pillar of strength. It’s easy to see why he was so popular. But a large part of that also has to do with Kurosawa’s screenplays.

This might not be one of Kurosawa’s greatest films, but all of his films are uniformly excellent. The set-ups, the shot selection, the composition, the editing, even the use of music demonstrates a cinematically skillful hand. In one scene Mifune brings a Christmas tree to Katsuragi on the back of his motorcycle, driving through town with “Jingle Bells” blaring in the background. His veritable stock company of actors are tremendously talented and it’s no wonder that his influence--not only in Japan--was so profound. Scandal is ultimately a tale of redemption, bittersweet, but redemption nonetheless. It’s a quiet film in many ways, and yet another example of Kurosawa’s genius as a filmmaker.