Shûbun (1950)

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Takashi Shimura, Yoko Katsuragi, Noriko Sengoku

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Rating: NR

Running Time: 105 min.

Synopsis: Released in Japan as Shubun, Scandal was the eleventh film directed by Akira Kurosawa (it was produced just prior to his more famous Rashomon). The director described it as a "protest" film about press journalism. The film sets forth the theory that the postwar Japanese press was too free in its insinuations, and that personal privacy had been sacrificed for the sake of sensationalism (The more things change...) Based on a story related to Kurosawa at a bar (!), the film traces the tragedy that results when a prominent lawyer is skewered by the press. Scandal ends with the hospital death of the lawyer's daughter--which didn't happen in the real-life anecdote.