Rashomon

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Peter Santana The perspective of four sides of the story so original for 1950! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/25/22 Full Review Benjamin Literally no exaggeration, one of the best movies ever. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/25/22 Full Review elana k You know those stuck in the mud, irrelevant film buffs who sigh and say "ah they just don't make films like these anymore"? I'm one of them. And Akira Kurosawa is one of those reasons. I love Ran, I love Seven Samurai, but I think I love Rashomon most of all. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 06/07/24 Full Review Merick H I'm not a big fan of this film from on of the greatest auteurs that ever lived. There are some interesting moments, it has some wonderful shots, and the themes that it explores are thought-provoking, but ultimately, the main storyline is just a bit dull and it never makes you care about the characters or what happens to them. It is worth a watch but I much prefer some of Kurosawa's other films. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/24 Full Review Matthew B We are told at the beginning of Rashomon what to expect. The opening lines, spoken by a shocked and dazed woodcutter called Kikori (Takashi Shimura) are: "I can't understand it. I can't understand it at all." His sense of horror and confusion is shared by Tabi Hōshi, a priest (Minoru Chiaki). The priest tells the other men that he has seen hundreds of people dying, and yet: "There was never anything as terrible as this. Never. It is more horrible than fires or wars or epidemics or bandits." The third man present is an unnamed commoner (Kichijiro Ueda), and the three men are sheltering from a heavy downpour of rain at Rashomon gate (located between Kyoto and Nara). The commoner is a more cynical fellow, and unfamiliar with the details of what the men are talking about. For him it is only a tale for a rainy day. What the men are discussing is an inexplicable event. As viewers raised on mystery tales, we may make the mistake of assuming that if we watch the movie we can solve the puzzle at its heart. Indeed, the cinematic language of Rashomon misleads us into thinking so. It contains scenes from a court trial, a familiar narrative device that usually ends in the discovery of the truth. When the three assistant directors working on the film asked the lead director Akira Kurosawa for an explanation of Rashomon, he explained that there is none. Humans are not honest with themselves and others. They misremember and embellish the truth. Courtroom trials are decided on witness testimony, and yet the witnesses' concept of what happened is unreliable and subjective. There are objective truths in Rashomon, but it is astonishing just how few of them can be named. We are not even sure who the killer is. It could be any one of the three central characters, since all three of their stories possibly incriminate themselves. Here is what we do know. A samurai and his wife wander into a forest. They are seen by a number of people. The husband is found slain. A bandit is caught with some of the husband's possessions, and he is put on trial for killing the husband and raping the wife. Nothing else is certain. What is it about this story that makes it so terrible for the woodcutter and the priest? A murder, a rape and a theft are certainly appalling, but hardly worse than fires, wars, epidemics or bandits. The reason the two men are especially shocked by this tale is because the three people involved in the incident tell utterly conflicting versions of what happened to the court, and it suddenly becomes impossible to ever believe another human being again. Rashomon's style reflects its content. The weather provides an objective correlative for the events in the story. The gloom of the woodcutter and priest are captured by the tempestuous rain, and presumably the clouds covering the sky. To make the rain more visible on camera, black ink was added to the water. Sunlight is seen in the forest scenes. Rashomon was unusual in pointing the camera directly at the sun as if to somehow capture the point of view of the raped woman, or to offer the viewer a disorientating perspective. The sunlight was further emphasised by the use of mirrors. However the sunlight is patchy, and obscured by the shadows cast by the trees, just as the light of truth is here shadowed and obscured by the characters. Indeed the forest itself seems an appropriate setting – a bewildering maze of trees in which people could get lost. The scenes are filmed using rapid editing and hand-held cameras (then something of a rarity in cinema), creating a subjective and woozy effect. Kurosawa drew on the legacy of silent cinema, telling his story through images and the exaggerated physical acting styles of its cast as much as through dialogue. However the pictorial storytelling does not make the narrative any clearer. The storytelling is pellucid, but the meaning of what we have seen is opaque. As the film draws to a close, the final message is not a pessimistic one. The ability of individuals to ever grasp the truth – their own or that of others – remains unattainable. However the priest's faith in his fellow man is restored by a final humane act. People may be fallible and weak, but kindness is still important, and affirms our basic worth in the world. I wrote a longer appreciation of Rashomon on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/rashomon-1950/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/05/23 Full Review Matteo P "It's human to lie. Most of the time, we can't even be honest with ourselves" Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Rashomon

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