15 Scandal

[Lino]

Scandal



Akira Kurosawa's Scandal — as relevant now as when made — is a pointed attack on the rising power of the press and their practices in the newly-Americanised postwar Japan of 1950. Kurosawa was outraged by the gutter press' actions, where "personal privacy is never respected", and by how the public's voyeuristic tendency to delve deeper into the lives of celebrities only encouraged this disrespect. Stirred to broaden his film's scope, Kurosawa made the film a study of personal honour, one which highlights the need for ordinary individuals to speak out against injustice and corruption.

On holiday in the snow-covered mountains, young painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshiro Mifune) has a chance meeting with the popular singer Miyako Saijo (Shirley Yamaguchi). After giving her a ride back to the hotel where they are both staying, Ichiro is photographed with Miyako by paparazzi. A magazine creates an exposé of their 'secret romance' based around this photograph, and the brooding Ichiro ignites a bitter and dirty libel case in order to restore their honour.

Scandal stars many great Japanese actors of the time including Noriko Sengoku (Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai) and Takashi Shimura (Ikiru, Seven Samurai), who delivers one of his finest performances as the defence lawyer emotionally torn between right and wrong. Kurosawa's film stands as a fascinating one-man blast against the origins of press intrusion. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Scandal for the first time on home video in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Newly restored high-definition transfer
• Video Introduction by Alex Cox
• Optional English subtitles
• Production stills gallery
• 20-page booklet with a new essay by Joan Mellen

[Lino]

And here's a closer look at that poster cover art

[Pinback]

Excellent news! It fits in perfectly with speculation that #13 & #14 will be Onibaba and Kuroneko. Where is this news from? There's nothing new on the MoC site...

And if you like the poster art, check out the weird cover on the HVE VHS of Scandal...

[Martha]

Excellent news! It fits in perfectly with speculation that #13 & #14 will be Onibaba and Kuroneko. Where is this news from? There's nothing new on the MoC site....

It's on the MoC dvd page-- just a new cover in the list. (I changed Annie's link because it was just to the page rather than the cover art, so don't blame her.)

[Pinback]

I couldn't see for looking. I'd checked and hadn't even noticed it...it's still not on the list of titles. MoC really like to sneak out these annoucements don't they? Well spotted Annie...

So can we assume this title will be released in May?

[Steven H]

tentative specs up

MoC #15

SCANDAL
(Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

Japan | 1.33:1 OAR | Date of release: July 2005

Akira Kurosawa's Scandal — as relevant now as when made — is a pointed attack on the rising power of the press and their practices in the newly-Americanised postwar Japan of 1950. Kurosawa was outraged by the gutter press' actions, where "personal privacy is never respected", and by how the public's voyeuristic tendency to delve deeper into the lives of celebrities only encouraged this disrespect. Stirred to broaden his film's scope, Kurosawa made the film a study of personal honour, one which highlights the need for ordinary individuals to speak out against injustice and corruption.

On holiday in the snow-covered mountains, young painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshiro Mifune) has a chance meeting with the popular singer Miyako Saijo (Shirley Yamaguchi). After giving her a ride back to the hotel where they are both staying, Ichiro is photographed with Miyako by paparazzi. A magazine creates an exposé of their 'secret romance' based around this photograph, and the brooding Ichiro ignites a bitter and dirty libel case in order to restore their honour.

Scandal stars many great Japanese actors of the time including Noriko Sengoku (Drunken Angel, Seven Samurai) and Takashi Shimura (Ikiru, Seven Samurai), who delivers one of his finest performances as the defence lawyer emotionally torn between right and wrong. Kurosawa's film stands as a fascinating one-man blast against the origins of press intrusion. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Scandal for the first time on home video in the UK.

S P E C I A L F E A T U R E S

Newly restored transfer

Optional English subtitles

Production stills gallery

16-page booklet with a new essay by Joan Mellen, and a reprint of her interview with Kurosawa from Voices from the Japanese Cinema.

Plus more!

and a friendly "Plus more!" to leave you with good feelings.

[Michael Kerpan]

An essay by Joan Mellen is not much of a selling point. She strikes me as knowing almost nothing about Japanese cinema -- beyond what she reads into it, based on her own personal agenda.

[peerpee]

Those who've read Voices from the Japanese Cinema (1975), The Waves at Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema (1976), and the bfi's Film Classic books Seven Samurai and In the Realm of the Senses might have a different opinion.

[Michael Kerpan]

I've read all of one -- and parts of another. and I stand by my characterization. "Waves" is one of the worst film books I've ever read. She exhibits comparatively little interest in cinematic aspects of the films -- and completely misinterprets (thematically) many of the films she discusses. And in the directors interviews I've read by her, she seems all too often mainly interested in grinding her ideological axes (and does not come across as a particularly acute listener or questioner). Not remotely in the same class as Audie Bock (at least the Audie Bock of a couple of decades ago).

[peerpee]

Being in the unique position of having read Joan's 3,000 word essay for MoC's edition of SCANDAL, your criticism of her writing style seems rather eccentric and I find it contrary to my appreciation of her work. Horses for courses, Michael

The MoC SCANDAL essay is focused, non-hyperbolic, enlightening, tightly written, and I couldn't imagine a more fitting, aware essay for the film.

Criterion must also disagree with you, Joan's just finished an essay for them too.

[Pinback]

Joan's 3,000 word essay for MoC's edition of SCANDAL

3000 words! That's a substantial piece of work...far from the empty gestures that the inclusion of liner notes often comes down to. I assume you're printing the essay in its entirety...?

[Michael Kerpan]

It wasn't Mellen's style I objected to in "Genji's Shore"-- but rather the content.

[ecschmidt]

Criterion must also disagree with you, Joan's just finished an essay for them too.

Do you have any information you're keeping to yourself, or am I just ignorant?

[peerpee]

You're not ignorant.

[analoguezombie]

I own "Voices from the Japanese Cinema" and find Mellen to be pretty decent as far as remaining as objective in ehr critiques as possible. She is certainly not as biased as Ray Carney for example. Still is Joan Mellen the poor-man's DOnald RItchie, just as Eureka! MoC is the poor-man's Criterion? Poor Brits, you never could get it quite right, could ya?

With some of MoC's releases though, this might just be the final push I need to buy a Region Free player.

[porquenegar]

I own "Voices from the Japanese Cinema" and find Mellen to be pretty decent as far as remaining as objective in ehr critiques as possible. She is certainly not as biased as Ray Carney for example. Still is Joan Mellen the poor-man's DOnald RItchie, just as Eureka! MoC is the poor-man's Criterion? Poor Brits, you never could get it quite right, could ya?

With some of MoC's releases though, this might just be the final push I need to buy a Region Free player.

I only own a few MOC titles (Michael, Metropolis, Humanity and Paper Balloons) and they are all excellent DVD's. I highly recommend getting a region-free player and seeing for yourself.

[skuhn8]

extras don't always determine price. And shouldn't really. It's the overall package, with the film itself of primary concern. When purchasing a DVD I think most of us are more concerned with "from best possible elements available" and the like than "with commentary by Richard Schickel".

Heck, to my knowledge MoC hasn't put anything barebones out yet, while Criterion still swings with a barebones non-anamorphic High and Low lacking even a trailer.

[peerpee]

Shochiku have been unable to provide us with trailers for SCANDAL and THE IDIOT.

We've spent almost all our time and effort on the films themselves. The prints used (the best material that Shochiku have) were in bad shape, but we did HD telecines, and have cleaned up most of the damage that we could. The audio for both films was in bad shape, out of sync, and terribly problematic. This has also been carefully cleaned up where possible.

Both films have been a nightmare, in this regard.

--

and lots of text extras (extensive cast and crew bios/filmographies, production notes, contemporary and modern reviews etc).For those who are, like me, cine-illiterate, the more (relevant) supplementary material the better.

We shy away from text extras on the disc -- they're difficult to read, a strain on the eye, unrewarding to navigate, and you can't read them on the lavvie. So if you'll allow the carefully made booklets to be counted as extras, I think you might be happy! -- (THE IDIOT alone has a 40-page booklet with a 7,000 word Daryl Chin monograph, and Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto's chapter on THE IDIOT from his KUROSAWA: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema book)

[Michael Kerpan]

Count me in as a booklet fan. A good booklet over a mediocre commentary ANYday.

[zedz]

We shy away from text extras on the disc -- they're difficult to read, a strain on the eye, unrewarding to navigate, and you can't read them on the lavvie. So if you'll allow the carefully made booklets to be counted as extras, I think you might be happy! -- (THE IDIOT alone has a 40-page booklet with a 7,000 word Daryl Chin monograph, and Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto's chapter on THE IDIOT from his KUROSAWA: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema book)

Bravo! I detest text features on disc. Why substitute a terrible text-delivery technology (DVD) for an excellent one (the book)? MoC have provided consistently excellent booklets that strongly contribute to the value of the overall package.

[Steven H]

I'm a little late to this, but have to add that I'm a big booklet fan. If I had my way we would be buying fat books with little DVDs snuck into the inside back cover.

I'm very much looking forward to this and The Idiot, are there any issues with the street date on these, or can we expect them sometime this month (I assume the 14th)?

Are you going to have a big "AKIRA KUROSAWA" marketing campaign so you can sell 300k copies of each by the first weekend?

[peerpee]

Both Kurosawa titles will be delayed about a week due to minor problems (busiest time of the year at the mo').

[anton]

Yep. There is a pretty big breakup at 48.39-48.40 (which is in chapter 6). Here's some selected grabs in sequential order. its a NTSC disc by the way, way up there at 29.97fuppus. Haven't watched the whole thing so sound issues I cant vouch for at this time, but a little desynchronizing adds finesse and that right old hand-cranked feeling so it wouldn't bother me anyways.

[Michael Kerpan]

Once again, a lesser known (and critically not especially acclaimed) Kurosawa film makes a bigger impression on me than some of the bigger name ones. Frankly, I enjoyed this a lot more than "Ikiru" -- and find it more consistently visually interesting. Great performances all around here.

[Matango]

Did anyone else have a problem with the background noise? This is my 12th Moc DVD and is the only one that I have not really been pleased with...all due to background hiss & scratch. I wonder how much work was done in this area?