Scandal

Takashi Shimura,Toshirô Mifune

Famous singer Miyako Saijo, who is publicity shy, and motorbiking artist Ichirô Aoye, who has minor celebrity, meet by chance in Kappazawa while Ichirô is on a painting expedition, and Miyako is on a retreat. As she has missed her bus to Kaminoyu and as Ichirô is heading there anyway, he offers her a ride to the resort where both of them are staying and which is largely empty as it is the off season. As he visits her in her room solely as a measure of friendship and camaraderie, they are unaware that a paparazzo working for scandal sheet Amour has taken a photograph of the two of them together on her balcony. Hori, Amour's publisher, decides to print the photograph along with an accompanying salacious story on what could have happened based on the photograph, but which is a total fabrication. Hori has done such before with other celebrities, never having been sued as he believes his subjects either like the publicity or are too busy or scared to take action. A libel suit he feels will only increase circulation. He is nonetheless surprised when Ichirô does sue, Ichirô's action regardless of what Miyako decides. Ichirô decides to hire as his lawyer Otokichi Hiruta, despite Hiruta coming across as an ambulance chaser and shyster. Ichirô makes this hiring decision after meeting Hiruta's bedridden daughter, Miyako, who suffers from tuberculosis and whose inherent goodness Ichirô believes cannot have come out of anywhere but her parents. The resulting case not only becomes about Ichirô and Miyako's rights and their belief that justice will and should prevail, but also about Hiruta whose person and soul will have to face the consequences of his own actions.—Huggo