The Quiet Duel kept me on edge! I liked it much better than Scandal. I suppose I’d agree that it is extraordinarily sentimental, but it’s a great story…

A young, virgin (pure) doctor contracts syphilis through a cut finger while operating on an infected patient during the war. He has to deal with the stigma associated with syphilis and the fact that he could pass it on to the woman he loves. He tells her he won’t marry her but never tells her why because he’s afraid that if he tells her, she’ll stay with him anyway but that staying with him will compromise her future.

I’d like to believe there are people around like Kyoji Fujisaki (played by Toshiro Mifune - very attractive in this film even if his character is far more uptight than the character he plays in Scandal.) But it still completely pisses me off when a man withholds the truth because he thinks he’s protecting a woman! Of course, we’re talking 1949 so I suppose we must be at least a little bit forgiving.