Scandal (1950)

No, this has nothing to do with the 2010s TV series. This is an Akira Kurosawa film from the same year as Rashômon, which would explain why it gets overshadowed.

Somewhat famous painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshirō Mifune) and more famous singer Miyako Saijo (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) happen to stay at the same hotel, and they engage in friendly conversation on a balcony. Alas, it looks juicy enough for photojournalists to spin a tryst tale. Aoye threatens a lawsuit, but Saijo would rather keep quiet and wait for the whole thing to blow over. Editor Asai (Shinichi Himori) believes that Amour magazine will be most profitable doubling down on its false version of events. Aoye hires the first lawyer to approach him, Hiruta (Takashi Shimura), despite the latter having nowhere near the repute of the defense. Hiruta does sympathize, but he can hardly resist Asai waving money at him to take a dive....

Dreams (1990)

Wisely marketed by Netflix as "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams," this is my first anthology viewing since...well, another Kurosawa piece. It's also from later in his career than anything else I've seen. I figured I'd like it better than Dodes'ka-den, partly because dreams are bound to be at least close to fantasy.

There are eight stories, generally set in 20th-century Japan. In "Sunshine Through the Rain," a young boy ignores his mother's warning not to go into the woods on a day with the titular weather, because kitsune have weddings then and don't brook human witnesses. In "The Peach Orchard," another boy, missing the peach trees that his family clearcut, sees their strangely human-shaped spirits. In "The Blizzard," four mountain climbers are on the verge of succumbing, possibly to the yuki-onna, before reaching their camp. In "The Tunnel," a former WWII commander walks through a tunnel and meets the ghosts of men who died following his orders and don't know it yet. In "Crows," a budding artist imagines(?) himself meeting an anglophone Vincent van Gogh (Martin Scorsese!) in France and traversing the scenes of several paintings. In "Mount Fuji in Red," a nuclear meltdown rapidly depopulates the volcanic area, with most people deciding they'd rather drown than face cancer. In "The Weeping Demon," on another mountain, radioactivity has effectively turned humans into demons in a Buddhist hell. And in "Village of the Waterfalls," a traveler discovers a contented Luddite village.

Stray Dog (1949)

For my first Akira Kurosawa film in more than a year, I chose one that Kurosawa himself didn't think much of but that has enjoyed plenty of popularity, as well as at least one remake. It also reputedly was a lot of fun for the makers, which I find surprising for such a serious work.

Murakami (young Toshirô Mifune), a novice police detective in the Tokyo homicide division, has just bombed at a shooting range when his day gets worse: A pickpocket on the trolley takes his fully loaded compact pistol. Fearing for his career among other things, he tries to trace the gun himself. When a bullet fired in a crime matches one retrieved from a memorable misfire at his target practice, he asks to team up with a more experienced detective, Satō (Takashi Shimura).

The Lower Depths (1957)

Not for the first time, Akira Kurosawa directs an adaptation of Russian literature, albeit a Maxim Gorky play in this case. I see that another Japanese director beat him to it by 36 years, but of course, that silent version can't possibly be as popular overseas. This one includes quite a few actors I've seen in many other movies, but the only name likely to mean something to you is top-billed Toshirō Mifune.

Like Dodes'ka-den, it follows lots of people in a shantytown and dumpsite. Unlike Dodes'ka-den, it takes place mostly in one large room (yeah, one of those plays), in a tenement with tilting walls. You could say that the action begins with the arrival of a new elderly tenant, who serves not only to stand in for the audience as a newcomer but to try to improve the sorry situations of others. He seems almost saintly, if a bit prone to well-meaning lies, but shows evidence of a guilty past.

Dodes'ka-den (1970)

You won't find the titular term even in a Japanese dictionary, but I expect to remember it for a long time, because it is spoken many times in this Akira Kurosawa film. Specifically, it's teen Roku-chan's impression of a trolley sound as he shuffles around a slum all day. I'm not sure whether he hallucinates or just immaturely (as with mental retardation) likes to pretend to be a trolley driver, but children taunt him, adults generally avoid him, and his mom frets about him. His imagined world isn't ideal; he complains about lazy maintenance men. Nevertheless, he's probably happier than his neighbors.

Roku-chan is more a framing device than a protagonist; our attention is mostly on others in his unenviable environs. These include two filthy drunkards, an overworked and abused girl, a homeless man and his young beggar son, a cuckold who treats all his wife's kids as his own, a henpecked husband who stands up for his wife, a haunted-looking man who never speaks, and an elder gentleman quite kind to troublemakers. None of their stories really overlap; they just alternate in the spotlight.

Drunken Angel (1948)

It had been more than 1.5 years since my last Akira Kurosawa viewing. More than 2.5 years since my last characteristic Kurosawa viewing. And just about half a year since my last viewing to make me nostalgic for Kurosawa. So I was rather glad to discover what Netflix had delivered while I was off on vacation.

Dr. Sanada (Takashi Shimura) treats Matsunaga (Toshirō Mifune) initially for an injury hinting at gang violence, but that's not as great a concern as the compelling evidence of tuberculosis. Matsunaga doesn't take this news well at all, as being a yakuza makes any sign of weakness dangerous; besides, TB hinders his ability to enjoy vices. Complicating matters is the return of his boss from prison, who incidentally used to be in a relationship with Sanada's assistant....

Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015)

I had seen Toshirō Mifune in a dozen films, only one of them not directed by Akira Kurosawa. Even when he's not the main character, he has a habit of capturing our attention. So I accepted the Meetup invitation to a documentary about him, tho my dad declined.

Actually, this isn't entirely about Mifune. Before getting into even his parentage and infancy (with cute photos care of his professional photographer dad), the doc presents the earliest history of motion pictures in Japan, with a focus on silent, Noh-inspired samurai shorts. I'm somewhat impressed that clips survive in any capacity. Late in the doc, we learn a little about the career of Kurosawa in the absence of Mifune.

Dersu Uzala (1975)

This Akira Kurosawa film easily stands out from all the rest that I've seen. Not only is it based on a true story; it's set in Siberia, with USSR actors speaking what I can only assume to be Russian. No Toshirō Mifune this time -- or anyone else you're likely to recognize. I figured the director had some interest in that country after adapting The Idiot, but this is still a great departure.

The story follows Army Captain Arsenev, leader of a topographic expedition troop starting in 1902. They run into several episodes of trouble, mostly in the form of nature, but an aged Nanai trapper by the title name has the woodland smarts to help them out. Arsenev and Uzala become friends. Too bad Uzala is too much of a country mouse to visit comfortably....

Hakuchi/The Idiot (1951)

I've long known Akira Kurosawa to take inspiration from westerns and Shakespeare plays for his samurai epics. But while I'd seen some dramas of his set in contemporary Japan, it didn't occur to me that they, too, might owe something to foreign artists. In this case, it's the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel with the same title in English.

I picked this one out of curiosity, not for its literary basis but for its DVD case description as having had an especially troubled production and an initially lukewarm reception. It certainly gained popularity after spreading to other countries, judging from its 7.5 on IMDb and 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. The main signs of production problems come in the form of strange scene shifts and inconsistent handling of narration (or lack thereof): Early on, we get a few intertitles, despite this being far from a silent movie; later we get a brief anonymous voiceover, and that's it. We may have to blame the cutting of more than 1.5 hours, tho it still runs more than 2.5.