Scandal details
| Format: | PG DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Shirley Yamaguchi, Toshiro Mifune, Noriko Sengoku, Takashi Shimura |
| Director: | Akira Kurosawa |
| Genres: | Drama, World Cinema - Japanese |
| Studio: | EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
Scandal |
PG Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 45 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | 14 Nov 2005 |
| Main languages: | Japanese |
| Subtitles: | English |
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Most helpful review
Much better than they led me to expect
By a customer from Newcastle upon Tyne , 29 Jan 2006[Highly rated reviewer]
Since you can get a comprehensive 'plot spolier' elsewhere on the internet I try to include as little as possible for those who don't want to know in advance. Cinema books and reviews etc I had seen often seem to regard this as being one of Kurosawa's lesser if not least film and somehow standing outside of the main body of his work as a sort of mis-step by the master into the lightweight run-of-the-mill film-making of lesser mortals. However in my view that proves not to be the case.. the quality of film is pretty much as good and as characteristic of Kurosawa as his half dozen or so films leading up to Seven Samurai (with the exception of The Idiot, my favourite of his films)..the fact that this is a moral-sentimental-comedy, falling broadly into It's A Wonderful Life emotional territory does not make it a bad film.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(4)Very disappointing
By a customer from Barnet , 29 Jun 2009I never thought I'd give a Kurosawa film anything less than four stars - until today. He must have had some real antipathy bordering on hatred towards the press to produce this. It's just unconvincing from start to end.- Was this review helpful to you?
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A mess of a film and a grave disappointment
By Savage (632 reviews) from London, England , 15 Apr 2006Kurosawa's attempt to dissect the new freedoms brought by American occupation at the end of the war never begins to coalesce into a complete film, and is structurally broken-backed. On the one hand, avant-garde painter Toshiro Mifune (a completely unbelievable characterisation) celebrates the new-found chances to paint what he likes how he likes and to zoom about the countryside on his flashy motorbike. On the other, he deplores the freedom of the press that allows intrusion into the private life of the reclusive singer to whom he gives a lift.
In the end, the director would appear to be on the side of the new, since the second half of the film mires itself in one of his characteristic attacks on the hide-bound, corrupt nature of the Japanese business world, symbolised by the defence lawyer and the magazine publisher, but although it all builds up to a courtroom climax, there is precious little here to hold the attention.
Kurosawa directs in an American fashion, too, sticking closely to narrative conventions (even when they make a nonsense of the story), employing wipe edits and fast cuts and trying to get something of the flavour of a Fritz Lang thriller to it.
It's a tribute to Eureka, the outstanding distributors of the disc that they include a brief introduction to the film by Alex Cox which is, if anything, even more sceptical about it than I am. Not many companies would do that, having enough confidence in the rare nature of the film itself.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Greater things to come
By Stephen Simpson from Croydon, England , 05 Feb 2006It is commonly observed of Akira Kurosawa that his films were so influenced by the West that he sacrificed some of his Japanese identity. This is nonsense, as far as I am concerned – he used American genres such as the western and gangster film as a starting point but, filtered through his own approach, he created entirely unique works. But (there’s always a but) Scandal does unfortunately feel like a weak American copy. It starts off as a critique of the rumour-spreading tabloid press, but about half way through morphs into a rather unconvincing courtroom drama. The leads, Toshiro Mifune and Shirley Yamaguchi, take a backseat and the great Takashi Shimura, playing a dodgy lawyer, takes centre stage. Shimura was a Kurosawa favourite (for example, as the leader in Seven Samurai) and is worth watching in anything. Kurosawa Mifune and Shimura would make Rashomon later in the same year and would go on to great things in the next ten years or so: Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Yijimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, High and Low . . .- Was this review helpful to you?
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Much better than they led me to expect
By a customer from Newcastle upon Tyne , 29 Jan 2006[Highly rated reviewer]
Since you can get a comprehensive 'plot spolier' elsewhere on the internet I try to include as little as possible for those who don't want to know in advance. Cinema books and reviews etc I had seen often seem to regard this as being one of Kurosawa's lesser if not least film and somehow standing outside of the main body of his work as a sort of mis-step by the master into the lightweight run-of-the-mill film-making of lesser mortals. However in my view that proves not to be the case.. the quality of film is pretty much as good and as characteristic of Kurosawa as his half dozen or so films leading up to Seven Samurai (with the exception of The Idiot, my favourite of his films)..the fact that this is a moral-sentimental-comedy, falling broadly into It's A Wonderful Life emotional territory does not make it a bad film.- Was this review helpful to you?
- (3) Yes |
- No (0)
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