STORY STUDY - CRITERION WEEK - 138. “Rashomon”

In preparation for this month’s Criterion week, I talked about stories that presented unique perspectives of a situation or life.

Rashomon is all about unique perspectives of a single event. Depending on which one, how you feel about what happened can change entirely.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, written by Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto, and based on the short story, In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the story revolves around an incident involving a bandit, a murdered samurai, and his wife, whom the bandit raped. This same event is being recounted by the bandit, the wife, the samurai (a medium is possessed by his spirit so he may speak), and a woodcutter, who witnessed the entire event.

Throughout the film, the woodcutter, the one recounting this experience, insists all three are lying about how everything happened.

The film is told primarily through flashbacks, and even flashback within flashbacks.

Unlike previous Kurosawa films I’ve covered in the past, Rashomon does not have sweeping wide shots of a village or forest, no strangers coming to save people in danger. It is a tightly written story that focuses on a single event, and understanding what’s happened. Each character recounts how the event went down in their eyes. The scene shifts so the event plays out the way they describe it. A character can go from fearful to sadistic; from brave to pathetic, etc. Depending on who’s telling the story, they make sure they themselves appear the way they want to be seen (bandit: cold-hearted killer; wife: helpless and innocent; samurai: honorable; woodcutter: … spoiler territory.)

The film is framed around one rainy night at the Rashomon city gate, where the woodcutter is with a priest (he had passed by the samurai and his wife before their ordeal). They were called in to testify about what happened. They recount what they witnessed at the trial to a commoner trying to stay dry in the rain.

It’s not a grand adventure filled with honorable characters; if anything, a majority of the characters are very much the opposite of honorable. The theme is truth… and how bendable it really is.

In the end, despite my earlier fear of revealing too much, the film isn’t about find out what the truth is; it’s about exploring why humans lie. We do it to preserve our current reputation; we may even do it so save people.

I want to say I found out about Rashomon when I was studying film, and it was a required viewing. I honestly can’t remember, but needless to say, when I finally saw it, I would never forget it, even going so far as to seeing The Outrage, the American remake told as a western. (Sensing a pattern with Kurosawa here?)

Ultimately, the film is like an abstract painting: how you yourself perceive the events is equally valid to how another person perceives it otherwise.