Rashomon (1950)
Kurosawa's classic tale of subjective experience, self-deception, and lies features three strangers getting together in the ruined temple gate of Rashōmon to protect from the torrential rain.
The strangers recount and deliberate over the conflicting testimonies given at the recent trial of a bandit who killed a samurai and raped his wife in the forest.
The film's text, as we get editorial comments from the non-participant at the trial, could not make things clearer: all humans lie and we do so for various reasons, chiefly among them, the protection of our ego.
This is obvious even just in the (first) testimony of the bandit when it paints not only him but also the samurai as honorable fighters.
Would there be honor in killing a coward or an incompetent fighter? Of course not! And so, it’s understandable that he claims this fighter was the best he'd ever encountered.
Was he thrown off his horse, as the man who captured claims? Don't be silly! He was sick from recently having drunk venomous water!
The males are favored in his version, but then comes the wife’s testimony, where they are both presented in not quite a positive light…
And so on.
Most unexpected is that the film includes a supernatural element: In a creepy sequence, a Shinto medium is called in to voice the dead man’s testimony. The unconvincing side commentary on this is that dead people don’t lie, and so this must be the definitive version. They don’t? Most ghost stories that give their dead some character do so of someone in self-denial!
Lastly, we get witness testimony of someone not only able to contradict the ghost’s record, but who’s not emotionally invested in the presented crime and whose unreliable statements are nevertheless is still subjective, and biased by the man’s preconceptions, prejudices and his own sins.
Is this finally the true version? We’ve already established it’s impossible for it to be so: As it turns out, he’s hiding something as well.
Critics have written interpretations describing allegorical and symbolic content of varying depths, but at its basic level this is something as simple as a courtroom drama where a jury must come with a verdict and a judge must rule based only on what’s presented before them. It differs from standard courtroom dramas, I suppose, because it happens after the fact and is presented to a third party, but also in that despite inevitable human weaknesses it concludes by morally reassuring us that there is still good, even in men as flawed as these.
This is very tightly written script despite the fact it might have become repetitive by presenting the same story four times; it skips over unnecessary reiteration and only presents the portions that differ.
The soundtrack is sometimes a kind of bolero, and there is some light mickeymousing which some love, and others aren’t crazy about, but it works well here, I think. Kurosawa is also not above presenting the surreal phallic symbolism of a sword signifying sexual arousal.
Beautiful photography.
Rashomon is now considered one of the greatest films ever made and among the most influential movies from the 20th century inspiring not only many remakes, but also lots of unreliable narrators in film modeled after these.
Not to be missed
Kurosawa's classic tale of subjective experience, self-deception, and lies features three strangers getting together in the ruined temple gate of Rashōmon to protect from the torrential rain.
The strangers recount and deliberate over the conflicting testimonies given at the recent trial of a bandit who killed a samurai and raped his wife in the forest.
The film's text, as we get editorial comments from the non-participant at the trial, could not make things clearer: all humans lie and we do so for various reasons, chiefly among them, the protection of our ego.
This is obvious even just in the (first) testimony of the bandit when it paints not only him but also the samurai as honorable fighters.
Would there be honor in killing a coward or an incompetent fighter? Of course not! And so, it’s understandable that he claims this fighter was the best he'd ever encountered.
Was he thrown off his horse, as the man who captured claims? Don't be silly! He was sick from recently having drunk venomous water!
The males are favored in his version, but then comes the wife’s testimony, where they are both presented in not quite a positive light…
And so on.
Most unexpected is that the film includes a supernatural element: In a creepy sequence, a Shinto medium is called in to voice the dead man’s testimony. The unconvincing side commentary on this is that dead people don’t lie, and so this must be the definitive version. They don’t? Most ghost stories that give their dead some character do so of someone in self-denial!
Lastly, we get witness testimony of someone not only able to contradict the ghost’s record, but who’s not emotionally invested in the presented crime and whose unreliable statements are nevertheless is still subjective, and biased by the man’s preconceptions, prejudices and his own sins.
Is this finally the true version? We’ve already established it’s impossible for it to be so: As it turns out, he’s hiding something as well.
Critics have written interpretations describing allegorical and symbolic content of varying depths, but at its basic level this is something as simple as a courtroom drama where a jury must come with a verdict and a judge must rule based only on what’s presented before them. It differs from standard courtroom dramas, I suppose, because it happens after the fact and is presented to a third party, but also in that despite inevitable human weaknesses it concludes by morally reassuring us that there is still good, even in men as flawed as these.
This is very tightly written script despite the fact it might have become repetitive by presenting the same story four times; it skips over unnecessary reiteration and only presents the portions that differ.
The soundtrack is sometimes a kind of bolero, and there is some light mickeymousing which some love, and others aren’t crazy about, but it works well here, I think. Kurosawa is also not above presenting the surreal phallic symbolism of a sword signifying sexual arousal.
Beautiful photography.
Rashomon is now considered one of the greatest films ever made and among the most influential movies from the 20th century inspiring not only many remakes, but also lots of unreliable narrators in film modeled after these.
Not to be missed
statistics: Posted by hermanthegerm — 6:15 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 1 — Views 106