Popular reviews

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★

  Coming after two crimes films and one about syphilis, and just before the philosophical Rashomon, Scandal is a decidedly lighter entry in Akira Kurosawa's filmography. It's easygoing and comedic, even as it tackles themes of intrusive journalism and mild sexism. Scandal is a rather frivolous piece, being cheesy as hell, and having very little insight into celebrity related issues. It just feels like a filler movie. There's stuff I admire about Scandal, especially the subplot of the girl dying of TB which is really moving. Every now and again there'll be a particularly smooth shot that highlights Kurosawa's skill and that also helps. But otherwise there's little of note here and it's probably Kurosawa's worst post-war film.

  Side-note: The Christmas scene was quite enlightening, watching the East and West mix together through Western songs sung in Japanese. Not a great scene, but interesting.

  Akira Kurosawa Ranked

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  Review by Mario 🟠🟢🔵 ★★★★ 8

  Fucking paparazzi and shit, I thought people in Japan had more honor. Mifune smoking pipes was beautiful tho. Also... Christmas Movies Ranked

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  Review by BrandonHabes ★★★½ 3

  A story about fake news, differing perspectives, interrogation, slander, false witnesses, obfuscating reality while smearing one's reputation, and a culture's inability to parse truth from fiction feels like an all-too perfect dry run for anticipating the RASHOMON effect. Arriving on the heels of that film, SCANDAL is a protest story against yellow journalism in the same way DRUNKEN ANGEL is a protest story against the yakuza. SCANDAL protests "verbal gangsterism," said Kurosawa, an ideology he saw embodied in the media's expanded, postwar freedoms after being liberalized from the shackles of American Occupied censorship. Ritchie states: "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,…

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  Review by gregs1999 ★★★

  The courtroom drama was the best part, should’ve been longer. Getting to know the characters well at the start was great, but it get a bit boring around the middle.

  Akira Kurosawa ranked

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  Review by Lencho of the Apes ★★★½

  Three movies in one -- the key moments that set the plot in motion are shaped like the meet-cute of a rom-com, but it quickly turns into a prickly, Sweet Smell Of Success satire about postwar modernizing/westernizing influences, like 'celebrity culture,' and their effect on traditional Japanese values, then morphs into a Capraesque feel-gooder about the spiritual redemption of a shady lawyer after being exposed to some angelic-goodness life lessons. At Christmastime, no less.

  Many of the best things here point directly to Ikiru (including the always-welcome presence of ol' Fish-Face, Takashi Shimura), which is far more wonderfuller than this... but this is quite wonderful enough. It's the long, blatantly Ikiru-esque Christmas sequence, though, that really makes it.

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  Review by threepenny ★★★

  It's an Akira Kuro-Capra movie! Yes, the feel-good Christmas movie of the year, with a twist. Admittedly, you'll need to be blind staggering drunk to sing Auld Lang Syne, and the angel is dying of TB. But Toshiro Mifune riding his motorcycle with a tree strapped to the back? Takashi Shimura convincing an entire bar to sing along in hopes of a better tomorrow? These are the stuff that dreams are made of. Mifune is a handsome artist who has by chance run into a beautiful singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi), some paparazzi snap a photo and invent a secret love affair, and a scandal is born. Mifune is going to fight it, and enlists the worst, most corrupt lawyer in the…

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  Review by D Rock ★★★★

  Another tour de force performance by a Japanese acting legend, in one of his many collaborations with director Akira Kurosawa. Oh and Toshiro Mifune is pretty good in this too.

  Kurosawa uses clever sleight of hand in Scandal, leading us early on to the threshold of a combination love story/courtroom drama revolving around questions of press freedom, libel and protection of privacy. But actually the story Kurosawa is telling is about the fraught path to salvation and redemption by one very flawed man. And Takashi Shimura's performance is very nearly as gut-wrenching as that of the dying bookkeeper in Ikiru, made two years later.

  Mifune is excellent as well of course, as a man of supreme independence and self-belief who…

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  Review by Joel Haver ★★★½

  Kurosawa dragging TMZ 50 years before they existed cause somebody had to.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 4

  Catching Up with Kurosawa Mini Project

  "Every cent the pig earns is as filthy as can be."

  The sanctity of the public image

  A salacious tabloid publishes a fake news story about artist Ichiro Aoye and musician Miyako Saijo having an affair, so they sue the newsrag for libel. But here's the thing: the article isn't exactly ruining their lives. Neither of them is in another relationship, so they're not being portrayed as unfaithful or as having done anything indecent other than engage in some consensual sexual activity. In fact, if anything the story has been good for business: it's put them both in the spotlight and increased their popularity, even if for bad reasons.

  They're suing not because of…

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  Review by Fabian ★★★½ 2

  Sandwiched between two of Akira Kurosawa's many masterpieces, namely Stray Dog (1949) and Rashomon (1952), Scandal looks and feels like one of the director's minor works, but it is definitely not deserving of being dismissed too quickly. In its essence, Scandal is a courtroom drama, as well as a critique of media companies and their practices, of spinning scandals and click-bait stories out of rumors and distorted misconceptions, basically tackling fake news in the process.

  In the beginning of the film, a celebrity magazine fabricates a scandalous story about an alleged love affair between a famous singer and a painter, leading to a lengthy process as the affected protagonists attempt to invalidate the powerful impact of a vilifying newspaper story.…

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  Review by WraithApe ★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Review by Mads Ej ★★★

  Akira Kurosawa movies ranked: boxd.it/cOTI2

  This is not one of Kurosawa’s strongest movies, but it still had some interesting themes and some good characters, which overall still made it a good movie.
  The story was good, though the scandal wasn’t that big, which kinda made the rest of the movie an overreaction. We follow two public figures, who are false believed to be lovers after standing close on a balcony, which gets published in the magazines and to battle the false information they sue and bring the case to the court. I am surprised that the themes of the paparazzi shamelessly spying and taking pictures of celebrities were relevant back then and it is only even more relevant today. 
  Though…