Scandal (Kurosawa, 1950): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 5.45pm
This 35mm presentation, also screening on January 24th, is part of the Akira Kurosawa season. You can find the full details here.
BFI review:
The first of two films Kurosawa made for the Shochiku studio (alongside the Dostoevsky
adaptation The Idiot in 1951), this punchy social drama takes a
righteous swipe at the gutter press, as Toshiro Mifune’s up-and-coming
painter is snapped by the paparazzi while sitting on a hotel balcony
with a famous singer (played by Yoshiko Yamaguchi), the photo inspiring a
fabricated story in a popular gossip magazine. Needless to say, the
outraged artist refuses to take things lying down and vows to take the
magazine’s editor to court. A lesser-known
work from the master, Scandal is nonetheless worth checking out not
only as an example of Kurosawa’s technical virtuosity and strong
compositional approach, but for its critique of some of the less
palatable aspects of westernisation.
Jasper Sharp
Here (and above) is an extract.
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