elilu Review of Scandal

Scandal (1950)

Kurosawa and Mifune, though always worth seeing, here come up short.

[7/10 · 25 December 2008]

In "Scandal," Mifune's artist character powers the film's start by motorcycling up a country height to paint a mountain scene--whereupon Yamaguchi's celebrity pop singer, dressed for town, comes walking up to this boondocks site (warbling in the bargain) miles from her would-be destination. Credulity is seriously strained, though the charms of the actors, and the take on post-war Japan keeps the filmic ball rolling, if with further bumps and grinds and lots of sentimentality. By the by, would lawyer Hiruta simply show up at the artist's house and enter without explaining himself right off the bat? And then there's that conveniently broken window in Mifune's well-set-up home/studio that permits Hiruta to peek in early and later....