Scandal

Aroview: This excellent early Kurosawa, has Mifune playing a painter who becomes acquainted with a pop-singer, and thus the target of a tabloid campaign. Despite hiring a lawyer to kill the story, a web of corruption begins to weave around him.

Bitterly critical of the trash media, which Kurosawa saw as a disease of post-WW2 American influence, this still impresses for its moral complexity and crisp filming, which is performed with a naturistic feel for locations that recalls other early masterpieces like STRAY DOG. Among the support cast Shimura is brilliant as the weirdly sleazy attorney.