Rashomon

In Brief: Though he’d made better movies before this one — and would make better ones after it — Rashomon (1950) is the film that put Akira Kurosawa on the map as a major force in international film. The secret probably lies in the picture’s unusual structure, which not only functions as a hook, but is, in fact, the whole reason for the film. The story by itself is simple — a man and his wife are waylaid by a bandit in an encounter that leaves the husband dead. But the trick is that we never see the story objectively. Instead, we see if from differing perspectives — and different agendas — so that we never know what really happened, only those differing tellings of the same events. What is true? There’s no way of telling and that’s what caught people’s imaginations. It becomes a mystery without a solution. Looked at without this aspect in mind, Rashomon actually feels cruder than some of Kurosawa’s earlier work, and maybe even a little padded. Does it deserve its massive reputation? Probably, but it’s best looked at as of its time. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke, published on Nov. 24, 2015.