Film: Rashomon
Year of production: 1950
UK Release date: 13th October 2008
Distributor: Optimum
Certificate: 12
Running time: 88 mins
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki
Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Review by: Colin-John Gardner
The amalgamation of two of prominent writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short stories, Rashomon is perhaps the greatest and most influential piece of work by the grand doyen of Japanese filmmaking Akira Kurosawa. The film was an international triumph, and helped usher Japanese cinema onto western audiences, as well as gaining Kurosawa worldwide recognition.
Rashomon opens during a heavy storm at the forbidding and damaged remnants of Rashomon Gate in 11th century Japan. As the rain pounds away, a priest (Minoru Chiaki) and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) sit in utter distress, pondering the horrors they have just witnessed. Soon enough, a commoner (Kichijiro Ueda), running into the ruins for cover from the violent conditions, approaches the men and queries them on their troubles. The woodcutter divulges that he had recently found the body of samurai (Masayuki Mori) who was supposedly murdered by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune), and that he and the priest had just returned from the murder trial in relation to it.
The film then cuts to the inquest, where the bandit Tajomaru recites his version of the events leading up to the samurai’s death through a subjective flashback. Following his testimony, the wife of the murdered samurai (Machiko Kyo), as well as the samurai himself, albeit through the use of a medium, deliver their accounts of the story to the court, again shown through biased flashbacks. Each story presented is exceedingly different except for the rather decisive point of the person in question admitting to committing the murder, or in the case of the samurai, committing suicide.
However, despite admitting to ultimately being responsible for the crime, each character has a somewhat explicit reason for wanting to deceive the court. After the testimonies are heard, the story cuts back to Rashomon Gate, where the ostensibly objective woodcutter gives his versions of the events. However, even his truth may be apocryphal…
The idea of subjectivity is the most important facet of Rashomon. As each version of the tale is told, the viewer is presented with the character’s skewed truth in the form of a flashback. In the context of the time, this was a truly remarkable and astonishingly original innovation to put into a film, as questioning the verisimilitude of a scene would be thought of as unimportant or utterly superfluous. In essence, Rashomon showed that the camera was not inerrant, and that it too could present a falsehood or be the victim of circumstance. The film’s main purpose, then, is to question the veracity of statements as it furiously dissects the nature of communication.
The acting performances within the film are, at times, somewhat extraordinary. During the flashback scenes, the performers play their characters in a rather eccentric way and their behaviour is often analogous to that of silent film acting. The idiosyncratic touching and perpetual frenzied gaze of the bandit Tajomaru, as well as the animated movements and outlandish howls of laughter by the wife of the samurai, are just some of the examples of the radical facial movements and exaggerated gestures employed in the performances within the film. This makes Rashomon beautifully expressive and is a testament to Kurosawa’s direction.
Despite not being one of Kurosawa’s most extravagant films in its appearance, the film still possesses some striking cinematography, as well as exotic locations and mise-en-scène. Kazuo Miyagawa, the film’s cinematographer, is one of the chief reasons for this. Some of the shots used in the film are truly wonderful; the desolate ruins of Rashomon Gate being pounded by the power of the rain at the beginning of the film is a specific example that creates an immediate atmosphere of intrigue. One of the most unforgettable aspects of the film is the woodcutter’s walk through the jungle in the first flashback. Here, Miyagawa points the camera into the sky as the woodcutter moves. The sun, shining through shrubbery and high trees above, is a marvellous aesthetic thrill that stands to be the most memorable sequence in the film for its subtle beauty.
Despite moderate domestic success at the time, the film was never seen as anything close to a revelation until it was shown overseas. Winning the 1951 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival cemented its critical achievements as it was the first non-European film to win the award. Rashomon also paved the way for western audiences to experience Japanese films and allowed Kurosawa the freedom to create more influential pieces of work in the future as well as giving the auteur international prominence.
Technically proficient and beautiful in its aesthetics, as well as intelligent and profound in its story, Rashomon is genuinely a cinema classic and is Akira Kurosawa’s magnum opus. Showcasing a narrative style that would go on to influence cinema to the point of being to some extent common, Kurosawa’s film asks a universal question to which we are challenged to query the very nature of the truth. CJG
