Rashomon

Rashomon, a Japanese crime-drama directed by Akira Kurosawa, was released in 1950. The story unfolds as four witnesses to a rape and murder tell what happened from their point of view. However, as each tells the story, it becomes clear that nothing is clear. All the stories are not only different, they are incompatible.

People always believe what they see on the movie screen. Rachomon, however, gave us the same scene from four different people’s perspectives, and the result was a vastly different scene. Each character was portrayed differently. The husband was sometimes seen as noble, other times as cowardly. The woman was different in every version: being a victim, a manipulator, an innocent girl, and a vixin. She was also described at different times "like a child trying to be serious" and then as “fierce”. The bandit had some of the same characteristics, but was also done differently with each perspective.

It was very confusing to determine what was true and what was not. This movie was the first of its kind to harshly judge the nature of truth, and the end doesn’t offer any explanations to what was really true, other than the fact that the husband died and that the woman had sex (consensual or not) with the bandit. Everything else is hazy.

I know that this movie is one of the "greats". However, personal opinion and bias got in the way, and I did not care for this film. I thought the concept was excellent; telling a the same story from different perspectives and getting something vastly different from each person. I did not like the lack of a soundtrack. I think a soundtrack during the long, drawn out scenes would have kept more people's attention. I also thought there was a lot of overacting, and the woman just got on my nerves.

Release Date: 1950 (Japan); 1951(USA)

Studio: Daiei Motion Picture Company
Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast:

Takashi Shimura: Woodcutter
Minoru Chiaki: Priest
Toshiro Mifune: Tajomaru—The Bandit
Kichijiro Ueda: Commoner

Machiko Kyo: Masako Kanazawa (Samurai’s wife)

Masayuki Mori: Takehiro Kanazawa (Samurai)