This is the first Kurosawa film that really punctured the Amero-centric film bubble, that left Hollywood the near sole producer of films after their nearest competition, Germany, lost their best directors due to Anti-Semitic pogroms. Thankfully, there is no pandering to try and imitate such a film, there are no musical numbers, not much action of any kind, and characters that aren't the nicest of people.
The story starts in the rain, as a group of people huddle around under an abandoned building to avoid it. From there, the common man is told by a woodcutter about a rape and murder in the woods, as well as a depressed monk who is losing his faith in the human species. From there, we are told multiple differing stories from multiple perspectives about what happened, and all of them vehemently contradict each-other. All of them cast a mystery that gives the viewer nothing to go on but their words.
What makes it work is that all of the stories, though self-pitying, all feel like they could have happened. There is no favouritism between the three parties, and all are giving 100% believable performance when they retell their stories, including minor pieces of exposition which lend credence to their tales yet further.
We are consistently cutting back to the commoner who's actually pretty funny and worldly, who offers a simple, unpretentious counter to the more philosophical world-view that Kurosawa is trying to explore. His crudeness is even somewhat likable. His attempts to try and rationalise the stories are magnificent in their roughness. There is further character development between the monk and woodcutter, both of whom have character arcs in their own right. Both stories, that of the 3 under the building, and the rape and murder, are excellent in their own right, but once combined, we can even then see parallels between them, and that shifts the film into masterpiece territory, without being a completely inaccessible puddle of pretentious cinema. This is a film a 12 year old who likes Transformers can watch as well as some 50 year old Swedish artisan.
One really gets a sense of the desperation eating at men's souls, including in all the murder scenes, and the sniping between the nihilist commoner and the (clinging) spiritual monk. There is a sense of underlying nastiness at the heart of everyone, but likewise a sense of potential redemption, though it most certainly doesn't completely conquer all that is wrong. Rashomon leaves us with an honest portrayal of the human species that doesn't leave us completely hopeless, nor wilfully ignorant.
It leaves us with hope, and hope can only exist in fear.
The story starts in the rain, as a group of people huddle around under an abandoned building to avoid it. From there, the common man is told by a woodcutter about a rape and murder in the woods, as well as a depressed monk who is losing his faith in the human species. From there, we are told multiple differing stories from multiple perspectives about what happened, and all of them vehemently contradict each-other. All of them cast a mystery that gives the viewer nothing to go on but their words.
What makes it work is that all of the stories, though self-pitying, all feel like they could have happened. There is no favouritism between the three parties, and all are giving 100% believable performance when they retell their stories, including minor pieces of exposition which lend credence to their tales yet further.
We are consistently cutting back to the commoner who's actually pretty funny and worldly, who offers a simple, unpretentious counter to the more philosophical world-view that Kurosawa is trying to explore. His crudeness is even somewhat likable. His attempts to try and rationalise the stories are magnificent in their roughness. There is further character development between the monk and woodcutter, both of whom have character arcs in their own right. Both stories, that of the 3 under the building, and the rape and murder, are excellent in their own right, but once combined, we can even then see parallels between them, and that shifts the film into masterpiece territory, without being a completely inaccessible puddle of pretentious cinema. This is a film a 12 year old who likes Transformers can watch as well as some 50 year old Swedish artisan.
One really gets a sense of the desperation eating at men's souls, including in all the murder scenes, and the sniping between the nihilist commoner and the (clinging) spiritual monk. There is a sense of underlying nastiness at the heart of everyone, but likewise a sense of potential redemption, though it most certainly doesn't completely conquer all that is wrong. Rashomon leaves us with an honest portrayal of the human species that doesn't leave us completely hopeless, nor wilfully ignorant.
It leaves us with hope, and hope can only exist in fear.