Shûbun (1950)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 104 minuten
Alternative titles: Scandal / 醜聞
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa
Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Yoshiko Yamaguchi and Yôko Katsuragi
IMDb score:
7,2 (5.152)
Releasedate: 30 April 1950
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Shûbun plot
While on vacation in the mountains, Ichiro Aoye, a young painter, meets a famous singer, Miyako Saijo. He gives her a lift and happens to stay in the same inn. A gossip magazine specializing in scandal blows up this meeting in order to discredit Miyako, who does not want to cooperate with the press. Ichiro sues them, but his lawyer, who needs money to treat his sick daughter, accepts a bribe to lose the case.
Actors and actresses
Ichirô Aoye
Miyako Saijo
Masako Hiruta
Sumie
Hori
Attorney Hiruta
Cameraman A
Arai
Miyako's mother
Reviews & comments
Spetie
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- 38871 messages
- 8145 votes
While this is certainly not a bad film, it is the least Kurosawa I have seen so far.
As in many of his other films, Kurosawa uses two of his regular actors here. First of all, there is Toshirô Mifune, who plays the artistic painter Ichirô, which he does convincingly in a beautifully subdued way. Then there is Takashi Shimura, who acts as Mifune's lawyer, because he has been photographed together with the famous singer Miyako and gossip is being told about them, which is not true. Shimura also plays well, although I have seen him do better. His role ultimately has the most charge in the film, because he is the one who has to fight an inner battle.
In itself, the subject of the film is quite interesting and also still quite current. Even today, the mosquitoes of the gossip press do everything they can to get celebrities in pictures in all sorts of ways. What this film does show well is that the reputation of such a person is always damaged. It doesn't matter what choice Ichirô makes, every choice is one that damages his reputation in one way or another. In the end, the truth is not even that important, it's more about how it comes across in the media.
It's a shame that this film sometimes gets a bit too sentimental and that there is also some misplaced humor woven into the film. That will undoubtedly be intended to give the film the necessary lightness, but I don't think it always works out that well. Kurosawa does provide beautiful cinematography in this film, which sometimes produces beautiful images. I also liked that it is left unclear whether Ichirô and Miyako ultimately fall in love with each other. That ultimately gives the film a nice poetic charge.
3.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 14514 messages
- 4510 votes
Nice fun film that works much better in terms of entertainment than in terms of emotion and drama. The film is about the tabloid press, but this film that takes place (and was shot) four years after the war is also about the American influence in Japan in those four years. As far as I'm concerned, even in the film itself, which could have been a Hollywood Bogart movie from that time, but with a Japanese setting. A bit of the same vibe. The pace is fine, nice atmosphere and the film is certainly very entertaining in the first part. Dramatically, it's all a bit dated and rather simplistic and towards the end that becomes increasingly important, but that shouldn't spoil much of the fun in the other parts. Mifune carries the film with his charisma alone. 3.5*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
For me one of the better Kurosawa's and not coincidentally that it is not a samurai film. I found it mainly in an interesting cultural zeitgeist there at the end of the 40s of the last century in Japan. The approach is particularly conservative where shame is spoken about an alleged relationship between two celebrities. If it were still an affair, you could still follow the tabloid press, but even that was not it.
Furthermore, the "Americanization" of Japanese society with the rise or power of the (gutter) press and the urge to use the legal system at every opportunity. Of course, this is incorporated here by Kurosawa as criticism in his film.
I enjoyed it. Great direction, interesting plot (development) and good acting. The courtroom part could have been a bit more refined for me. That went quite 'simple' for me, certainly towards the end where everything is clarified in just a few minutes.
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