A film review by Aryan Victor
Rashomon is a film Directed by the great Akira Kurosawa with a cast of Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda and a screenplay written by Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto based on the stories “Rashomon” and “In a Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The Cinematographer was Kazuo Miyagawa and the music is given by Fumio Hayasaka
Even after 60 years of its release Rashomon is still a beautiful, mysterious and poetic film which has had massive impact in the world of film making ever since . One that uses unique qualities of cinema to examine the nature of truth and the darker side of human nature .
Rashomon is a story about a crime , more specifically its a story about the telling of the story , the film opens in the ruins of an old temple in the middle of a rain storm and we see three men , a woodcutter , a priest and a commoner who all have taken shelter from the storm at a temples gate .
In the opening sequence itself we see the importance of the number three, there are three men there and the story they are about to hear also have three characters and the story has three conflicting viewpoints and while none of the main characters have yet appeared the film flashbacks to a trial convened to solve a crime and then flashback even further to depict the crime itself and there are also three levels of story telling . there is a story being told told by the woodcutter at the gate , there is a second story that the witnesses are testifying in the trial and there is third story which is the audience witnessing the crime itself .
The first perspective we get on this crime is from the point of view of the bandit , this character claims that he lured this wealthy samurai into the forest for the purpose of robing him and raping his wife , the bandit claims that he tied up the samurai and tried to attack the wife and even though the women tries to defend against the attacker she eventually gives in and is seduced by the bandit , now after that being guilt driven and left in shame the women begs the bandit to duel with the samurai to death in order to save her from the guilt of having 2 men knowing of her dishonor . The bandit sets the samurai free and the two men duel each other where the bandit finishes off the samurai .
The second version comes from the wife where it is quite different from the bandit’s as in her version the bandit leaves her for dead after he has raped her , after freeing her the women begs her husband to kill her so she will be at peace and does not have face and live with such dishonor but the husband declines as he does nothing but stares at her with a look of disgust which disturbs her so much that she takes the dagger in her hands and slowly walks towards him and the scene cuts .
After that we move on to the third story which is told very unusually as the third story is told by the spirit of the samurai in a psychic from as he is dead already and his story goes as follows as in his story after the bandit raped his wife , the bandit asked her to run away with her , according to the samurai the women accepted but asked the bandit to kill the samurai so she would not feel shameful for belonging to two different men , after his wife and bandit run away the samurai filled with shame continues to kill himself with his wife’s dagger.
The film continues back to the three main characters at the Rashomon gate which is drenched in rain .
And its here that the woodcutter reveals that he actually witnessed both the rape and the killing of the samurai . Now the woodcutter story is supposed to be reliable but it is not so as in his story all the characters are corrupt and jealous where the bandit actually kills the samurai but its not so much one sided as the bandit described but it is revealed that the bandit almost just accidentally kills the samurai but even this story is suspicious as it shows the woodcutter in the best light so at the end of all the stories each character has claimed to murder in one way or the other but each of the story is unreliable because we are viewing them from their perspective and the pride of the observer so in Rashomon truth is so hidden in the pride of the people that it may never be found . The duplicity and pride destroys the real truth after all the different stories had been told the only truth were certain of is the power of perspective and how it creates multiple realities .
The large portion of the film is located in the forest and the forest symbolizes the complex stories and intermingling of various stories with each other . The forest sometimes allows a glimmer of light through the sun but still the truth remains hidden in the complexity of the different perspectives .Rashomon is known for a beautiful shot where rain the pouring down vigorously and the storm is carrying the wind with it.
Kazuo Miyagawa and Kurosawa used the natural light given by the sun and used mirror to direct the light on the subjects , the subject which with are lit by highly directional light therefore also create create stark shadows on the forest floor .
The impact of rashomon was huge as it created rashomon effect where various perspectives are used to fill a story where each perspective is subjective and therefore different . The rashomon effect is still used in film making and has given a lot to the art of film making.
Till today , Rashomon has lost none of its charisma and impact. It’s still a marvelous piece of cinema that asks unanswerable questions of great importance
