Akira Kurosawa’s eleventh film which was produced in Japan prior to his another blockbuster movie “Rashomon”. Kurosawa described the film as a “silent protest to press journalism”. It was a theoretically based story that post war journalism was free of insinuations; therefore, personal privacy had been sacrificed for the sake of a more dangerous facet of press freedom. – SENSATIONALISM. This film traced the tragedy that came about, when a lawyer’s daughter was skewered by the press.
This was an unpolished comedy made just before his breakthrough film “Rashomon”. A story of a headstrong artist Ichiro Aoye played by Kurosawa’s protégé, Toshiro Mifune Aoeye painted a remote mountain where three peasant bystanders looked over his shoulders as he explained to them how his precious works of art which reflect his innermost sentiments. On the other hand, Miyake Saijo approached the men, and casually told them she missed her ride. However, when she was informed that she had to walk two miles to reach her destination, she gladly accepted the offer of Mifune for a ride. They had checked in to the same hotel room. With all innocence, Ichiro entered Miyako’s room. When they went out of the room, a scandal broke out, it was written in the papers that they were romantically involved.
Kurosawa as an overrated filmmaker was too mushy in his approach in directing the film. In this picture, he projected Mifune and the alluring singer as “sexless lovers”, while the publisher as a “cardboard villain” Concerning the lawyers, they were too redemptive and predictable. Therefore, it had no greater impact on the movie in general. Moreover, some scenes in the film were corrosive, which ruined the film by obvious delineation of what was good and evil. Further, the message of the film was not so clearly cut across. In other words, unconvincing, Acting wise, it was a mechanical kind of stuff and not provocative It was if the actors had gone to an acting workshop for” bad actors” learning the art of acting through didactic means. What I admired most in Kurosawa was the fact that he used parody to express his political and cultural views Above all, “Scandal” revealed a “passionate Kurosawa about certain issues through fictional approach. Actually, he was linked to an actress prior to the making of this film, serving as its premise.
Verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
