Rashomon

Rashomon

This movie was directed by Kurosawa. It is a Japanese film released in 1950. The director explores the perception of humanity. The film tells four different tales on the same event.

The establishing shot is of a raining and we have a close up shot of rain hitting the ground. The director is probably portraying the confusion to come. The first line uttered in the movie is “I do not understand”. We see how Kurosawa through a combination of great camera work, sound and positioning of character beautifully puts his point across.

The movie is a story within the story. The confusion of the commoner, woodcutter and the priest and there is the story of their confusion. The director did something for the first time- both the stories were shedding light on each other.

In the outer story - three characters also are portrayed by director as three perspectives towards life- the commoner is the cynic, the woodcutter is

In the inner story consist of Bandit, the wife, the Samurai and the woodcutter. As the movie goes on we see that each of them have their own perspective to the event. However the director has kept the stories on a basic structure so as to make them believable. For example all the stories agree that the Bandit killed the Samurai. The director makes it seems that the woodcutter’s version may be the truth. This is because firstly the woodcutter has a neutral perspective.

Also the director uses different musicals for the stories which especially reflect the characters.

The movie explores how these perspectives come to be that is that people tell lies to protect their self-image which they believe in.

The director makes fantastic use of camera and this becomes very important in holding the film together. He makes use of the moving camera to show the fast and frantic scene. The camera also helps in establishing the perspective of characters. For example in the beginning when the woodcutter describes we see how the director first show a variety of shot pointing to the sky which was covered by the trees. By this he establishes the good and care free nature of the woodcutter. In the second story of the wife and the samurai we lose camera work since these characters see themselves as tragic victims they tend to occupy most of the frame.