Rashomon Details

Four perspectives of the truth...

Rashomon was Kurosawa's major international breakthrough, winning the Golden Lion at Venice and the best foreign film Oscar in 1951. Seeing this film it is not hard to imagine its impact: the exoticism of its Japanese settings, characters and compositions and yet it’s much broader message about the nature of truth and subjectivity.

The film centres around the violent death of a man and the rape of his wife as they journey through a forest. These events are presented in flashback from the perspective of each of the three participants giving evidence to an inquest: the bandit responsible for the rape, the wife and the dead man (whose story is told through a medium). A final version is presented by a woodcutter who was an unseen witness in the forest.

Each story describes a radically different view of the events, presenting the narrator in a more positive light and hiding personal weaknesses. There is a remarkably vital and dynamic performance from Toshiro Mifune as the bandit, and a very strong supporting cast. Although the film shows its age a little on this DVD in terms of scratches and print damage, this does not detract from masterly cinematography capturing the play of sunlight in the forest and mirroring a shifting perspective on the relationships between the characters. Rashomon is a masterwork of Japanese and international cinema, and amongst the greatest of the many great films directed by Kurosawa.

I say I liked it but I must add, if you're not into oriental films, steer clear. If you're not into slow movies, steer clear. It's a sweet story, with some dodgy fighting scenes but it has a quality. That's as specific as I'm getting, it's just a nice tale.