Shūbun [Scandal] (1950)

You'd think after doing this for fifteen years I'd already know about a Christmas movie made by one of the most famous and revered filmmakers in cinema history, but here we are. Directed and cowritten by Akira Kurosawa, the legendary creator of Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress, and numerous other classics, Scandal tells the somber story of a painter and singer who are victims of libel, as well as their lawyer, who struggles after accepting a bribe to sabotage the case. The bulk of the film is set in December of 1949, with about fifteen minutes spent on Christmas itself, which serves several thematic purposes and sets up the movie's final act.

The film is quite good, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one after hearing who made it. The cast features some of Kurosawa's regulars, including Toshiro Mifune as the painter, Aoye, and Takashi Shimura as his lawyer, Hiruta. The singer, Miyako, is played by Yoshiko Yamaguchi (I'm just going to link to her Wikipedia article, which includes information on her real-life careers as a singer, actress, journalist, politician, and author, as well some details on the time she was nearly executed for treason in 1945). They're all great, particularly Shimura, who instills Hiruta with tragic depth. The movie hinges on his ability to sell pathos, and he delivers.

The whole thing opens with a chance encounter between Aoye and Miyako, who are staying in the same hotel sometime in December of 1949. Tabloid photographers take a picture of the two of them together - the situation is innocent, but the context makes it easy to spin the whole thing into a salacious story, which damages the reputations of the famous singer and painter. Miyako is initially going to let it slide, but Aoye is less forgiving. It's less the insult than the principle of allowing the liars to get away with it.

Enter Hiruta, a bumbling failed attorney who pleads with Aoye to let him argue the case. Aoye agrees after meeting Hiruta's daughter, a kindhearted girl sick with tuberculosis. Meanwhile, the editor who printed the manufactured story meets with Hiruta and talks him into accepting a bribe to throw the case. Hiruta feels awful about this, but he lacks the courage to do anything about it.

When Christmas arrives, Hiruta returns home to find Aoye and Miyako have decorated his house and are celebrating with his wife and daughter. Ashamed, he runs off and Aoye follows him to a bar, where the depressed patrons are celebrating together. Or, more accurately, mimicking a celebration: there's a sense of desperation to the establishment, even more so when a drunken man toasts the coming new year with a pledge to be a better person. Hiruta makes the same proclamation, and the patrons begin singing Auld Lang Syne. There's a clear emptiness to their singing, however: it's written across their faces that the next years will be the same as the last.

On the way home, Aoye (who is also drunk by this point) notices a pond reflecting stars overhead. He proclaims it's a miracle that the stars have landed in the filthy water and compares the image to Hiruta and his daughter. In the metaphor, Hiruta is the dirty water, and his daughter is a star. Rather than take offense, he thanks Aoye for describing his daughter in such a way. Aoye tells him that perhaps even Hiruta could become a star one day.

The movie then jumps ahead a month, and we find the trial is well underway. It's not going well, which is no surprise considering Hiruta is following instructions from the editor he's supposed to be suing. The case attracts national attention, and Hiruta is a laughing stock.

In the midst of this, Aoye goes to visit Hiruta's daughter, who is too ashamed to look at him. Aoye explains that he knows Hiruta is cheating him but believes he'll come through in the end. Hiruta's daughter doesn't live to see this - she dies soon after.

Heartbroken, Hiruta continues the case. On the final day, he reveals the bribe the editor gave him, which of course turns things around. During an interview after his victory, Aoye responds that the joy of winning is trivial to what he witnessed: the formation of a star. The movie then closes with a shot of Hiruta walking down the street - he's a broken man, anonymous and poor, presumably having lost the ability to practice law, but he's a better person.

Again, the movie is quite good. Kurosawa was a master at selling drama, so despite an admittedly melodramatic premise, the emotional beats resonate. Both the Christmas section and ending feel like earnest explorations of Japan as it sat torn between its shame in the aftermath of World War II and its hope for a better tomorrow. It explores similar themes as Morning for the Osone Family, though it's clear Scandal had a few additional years to reflect on these ideas. Morning for the Osone Family offers a sense of Japan right after the end of the war, while Scandal is dealing with the war's lingering shadow and questions of whether Japan is ready to step into a new era.

That's mainly what Christmas represents here. The drunken speeches in the bar explicitly discuss this, and the somber reflection on these ideas underline their importance. The holidays are a sort of demarcation of the line between the 1940s and 1950s: the past and future respectfully, as well as the decision to accept a life of shame or to commit to the work of transformation.

At the same time, the movie seems to acknowledge the reliance on such symbols is hollow. The resolutions made in the bar are clearly and unmistakably empty lies the drunks are telling themselves. They know as well as we do that accepting a compromised present while promising to change in the future is a paradox, as the future will inevitably become the present. We must be willing to stand up in the now to become better: resolutions mean nothing.

It's unusually sophisticated subtext surrounding the holidays for the era, and that includes Christmas movies made in the US. This isn't simply a Dickensian tale of transformative redemption: in fact, it seems to renounce such narratives. Instead, it asks us to understand the difficulty of making the sort of sacrifices such change actually requires.

On a more superficial level, the movie of course references more common images and ideas associated with the holidays. The most obvious of which are the central focus on a child at the holidays and the fascination with stars. The child, in this case Hiruta's dying daughter, is presented as a sort of messianic figure. The narrative is somewhat ambiguous as to whether she ultimately dies for her father's sin (I'd lean against that interpretation, but it's at least plausible). Regardless, she's definitely the catalyst for his redemption.

The star imagery is certainly interesting, in part because its use here deviates from Christian mythology. It feels as though stars are invoked as a reference to the Star of Bethlehem, but the symbolism is completely different here. You never really see that in American Christmas movies unless they're attempting to subvert or mock the traditional iconography: here, it's just being used differently.

A minor detail I really liked was presented in an extended shot of Hiruta looking through windows of his house at the Christmas celebration inside. The windows were vertical rectangles, giving the scenes inside the appearance of Christmas cards. It's a beautiful sequence.

Setting aside the fifteen minutes set on Christmas, all but the last thirty minutes are set in December, though it takes a while for the holiday to be mentioned. Likewise, we don't really see any decorations until the holiday section itself, which makes for a good reminder that, while Christmas was significant enough in Japan to warrant inclusion and to be integrated thematically into the narrative, it was certainly less pronounced than it would have been in America during the same era.

Still, the thematic usage alone is enough to cement this as a Christmas movie in my opinion. If you want more, the movie uses several holiday songs, including Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and the aforementioned Auld Lang Syne. Kurosawa wanted the holidays to be felt in this film.

More importantly, it's a good film. The movie's criticism of tabloid journalism certainly remains relevant, and its challenge to the viewer to aspire to be better remains striking in any era or any season.