Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Kurosawa's Scandal
Toshiro Mifune certainly has played roles in films by Kursosawa or others that were not period or samurai-related, but somehow the independent-spirited, principled motorcycling artist in Scandal (1950) suits him quite well still with the kind of code and sensibility that he posses in his later more famous roles in the Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, etc.
Of the five films in the Postwar Kurosawa Eclipse Criterion box set, Scandal seems most a curiosity of the time it was created. Yet at the same time, its examination of yellow scandal sheet journalism has a sense of prescience to it. Innocent images of an encounter Mifune has with a popstar in a mountain getaway are marketed as a sensational National Enquirer like outfit and cause quite a cultural sensation just as Brad and Angelina fodder does in our current pop culture.
Mifune''s artist character Ichiro Ayoye has high and strongly determined values. The other men in the film are weak, duplicitous or just plain crooked. The women are a picture of goodness, both the popstar and the infirmed daughter of the weak and flaky lawyer he hires. There are also a couple of sets of male characters that are stock and broadly drawn of the ilk one encounters in a John Ford or Frank Capra film.
Donald Richie comments on how Kurosawa was motivated to make this film because of an incident where his private life was put on display in the yellow press. And also because "The Occupation was coming to an end and for the first time in the history of Japan people were beginning to be allowed to say, do, read, write anything they pleased." and he harbored concerns about this.
Scandal is certainly worth looking at if one is working their way through the Criterion set, but isn't a standout by any means. It is pretty ordinary fare overall, but there are minor pleasures in it to be sure, it is great fun to watch Mifune do his thought scratching in another setting than feudal and he makes a fine knight of righteousness in a shallow world surrounding him.
posted by well-executed buffet at 4:55 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment