Message from lkrant

[Anonymous]

Rashomon

This is a black and white Japanese film made in the 1950’s subtitled in English. Akira Kurosawa, the director tells the story through the various characters from their perspective. A gentleman and his wife meet a bandit while traveling through the forest. The gentleman is dead and the wife possibly violated. The story unfolds through the various characters’ experiences with the couple. The movie opens with three (3) men at a dilapidated gate during a rainstorm. One of the characters (the woodcutter) is disturbed by the incident and unwillingly tells his version of the truth. The movie recounts the incident through the eyes of the bandit, the wife, the dead man (through a medium), and a woodcutter. The woodcutter is the only one who witnesses the whole incident, but it becomes interesting how all the versions are completely different. Since the witnesses only observed part of the incident, their perception of the events is personalized. The movie focuses on what the bandit may have done to the gentleman’s wife and ultimately who killed the gentleman. Who is telling the truth? Is it the bandit, the victim or the dead man? Watching this film, I am not sure who is telling the truth. Although the woodcutter is the only one to see the entire incident, it is hard not to doubt his version. The concept of telling a story through witness accounts places you in the center of the mystery. You become the detective who has to determine who did it.

Larry