A veteran freelance photo-journalist is forced to partner with a rookie reporter in this dark comedy about celebrity culture and the press. Shizuka Miyakonojo (Masaharu Fukuyama) earns a living by taking photos of celebrities in compromising situations: hanging out at girl’s bars, having affairs, or being caught blind drunk. He gets by selling his snaps to his ex-wife Sadako (Yo Yoshida) who works at ‘Scoop!’ magazine, which specializes in celebrity gossip and soft-core pornography. Lone-wolf Shizuka is teamed up with newbie reporter Nobi Namikawa (Fumi Nikaido) and the pair are tasked with getting high quality content for the magazine. The mismatched pair soon form a bond over their secretive activities and schemes to secure stories. Danger is never too far away however with Shizuka’s unhinged friend Chara (Lily Franky) lurking in the background.
“Scoop!”, directed by Hitoshi One from a script by One and Masato Harada (“Bounce Ko Gals”), is a thrilling ride from start to finish. The plot is set up as a straightforward odd couple team-up, with both Masaharu Fukuyama and Fumi Nikaido bringing charisma and chemistry to their roles. Shizuka is a fairly unlikeable character, but Fukuyama’s performance shows us this broken individual hides anxieties about his failure to make something of his life; while Fumi Nikaido brings a cheerful optimism and steely determination to Nobi. The supporting cast are also great, including Yo Yoshida and Kenichi Takito as editors at the paper, and Lily Franky in a role that runs the gamut from humorous to terrifying. The creative camerawork helps the film feel fresh throughout, with a fantastic opening sequence that follows Shizuka from an intimate moment in his van to tailing his mark in a single spellbinding take. The film has a comedic tone, but is always skirting darker elements: sex work, rape, and murder. The ending is shocking for anyone expecting a simple ‘enemies-to-friends’ narrative, but in context makes perfect sense, feeling as if the constant toying with disaster finally catches up with the protagonists.
“Scoop!” takes an unflinching look at the world of paparazzi, who spend their lives following around celebrities to catch them unawares. It’s a seedy existence, using others for personal gain, that borders on the criminal. We are drawn into the excitement of the chase with Shizuka and Nobi and it becomes easy to forget that there are real people involved, as they see them simply as targets. However, in the latter half the film begins to examine the morality of their actions more closely, questioning the purpose of the press in holding politicians to account and covering serious topics such as crime, rather than the more frivolous gossip of celebrity affairs and drinking parties. The film’s climactic moments challenge us with a brutal sequence involving murder, a topic hinted at earlier when the characters are tasked with taking a photograph of a rapist-murderer. This sudden explosion of violence confronts us with the fact that while these magazines may appear to be inconsequential there are real victims behind the stories; and real suffering happening in society. It is easy to forget in a media-saturated world our responsibilities to each other. “Scoop!” is well worth a watch for its entertaining plot, actors at the top of their game, and a conflicted protagonist that questions the morality of journalism in the modern era.
