Joseph Roman

10/20/10

Rashomon (1950)

Country of Origin: Japan

Language of Film: Japanese

Released in Japan August 25, 1950

Released in United States December 26, 1951

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Starring:            Toshirō Mifune – Tajomaru
Masayuki Mori – Samurai (husband)
Machiko Kyō – The wife
Takashi Shimura – The Woodcutter
Minoru Chiaki – The Priest

Awards:          Best Screen Play (1951 Blue Ribbon 

                        Awards)

                        Best Actress (1951 Mainichi Film                      

                        Concours)

                        Golden lion (1951 Venice Film Festival)

                        Best Director (1951 National Board of 

                        Review)

                        Honorary Academy Award (1952 24^th 

                                                                                        Academy Awards)

            The film Rashomon was heavily influenced by silent film and modern art. Kurosawa felt that cinematic sound was never purely an accompaniment to the film. He felt that the real sound added to the images in the film as well as multiplied the effect of the scene. He also practiced a modern art technique known as simplification. Accordingly, there were only three settings of the film: the Rashomon gate, the woods, and the courtyard. Each of these settings were produced in a minimalist fashion satisfying his practice of simplification.

            I read two articles, Judgment by Film: Socio-Legal Functions of Rashomon by Orit Kamir, and http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?

cid=136021&mainArticleId=160926. The first article talks about the evolution of the word Rashomon. The author talks about the words evolution from the title of the movie to an actual legal term. The second article gives some of the background about the film. It talks about how the film was perceived in Japan as well as in the United States.

            After reading the articles regarding the film, I was able to open up my mind a little bit more considering the fact that I really didn’t like the film much. The articles helped me look beyond the picture and allowed me to process the underlying message of that of the film. For instance, the second article talks about how the Japanese critics of the time showed their displeasure for the film. The Japanese weren’t necessarily proud of the way Kurosawa exercised his liberties as the director. They felt that he took it a little bit too far. All in all, his directorial views helped make this film historic as well as a significant influence on popular culture of its time. After we screened the film, Professor Mirrer talked about how the film’s title was actually being used as a legal term. The first article gave me some background about the development of the word. The word Rashomon is used legally to refer to the relativity of truth. The article covers how the truth changes from person to person regardless of the sincerity of each person. Their views aren’t usually a direct reflection of what happens at the scene of the occurrence.

            Much like 400 Blows, I didn’t really enjoy this film much. This film had a lot more action then the last, but the action scenes lacked the realism that I’m kind of into. Its hard for me to enjoy these films considering I come from a generation where every film pushes the limits of realism and makes fantasy look like it can actually happen. Besides me giving my biased opinions, I’ve got to talk about my gaining respect for the film. If there’s anything positive I can do it’s that I can now respect the film for being groundbreaking. The articles helped solidify that for me. I feel that regardless of the film being boring for me, it was something that was incredibly new for the viewers of its time. This is something I can respect about the film. Overall, I really didn’t like the film, but the fact that it defied its cultural norms, helps solidify itself as a true cult classic for film theory buffs.