Rashomon (1950)
{I was proud when I saw Tamil movie “ Virumandi”for the story telling ,I comeback proud saying hey my star is the best in the world ,My father let me down come on kid Virumandi is inspired from 1955 classic Antha Naal .Arguments closed.}
In English vocabulary there is a term called Rashomon effect which was coined after this movie.This movie Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa brought Japanese movies and legendry Akira Kurosawa to Western audience.
The Rashomon effect is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. (Source :Encyclopedia.com)
The above description tells you the story. The film is made in a unusual narrative style which gives the impossibility of obtaining the truth from witnesses of Murder and a rape. There is a flashback, flashback with in the flashback .But the beautiful part of it is you never feel confused where you are!
The story unfolds on a Priest and a woodcutter narrating their views on the murder of a samurai and rape of his wife. They narrate the incident of bandit Tajōmaru (Toshiro Mifune), the murdered Samurai Kanazawa-no-Takehiro (Masayuki Mori), his wife Masago (Machiko Kyō) and wood cutter narrating the events of one afternoon in a grove. Each story is mutually contradictory, leaving the viewer unable to determine the truth of the events.Even Samurais soul narrates the incident as witness.
The story comes back to the rainy evening with the conversation between wood cutter ,Priest and Commoner on their views again.They are interrupted by a crying baby.The commoner takes the clothes of the baby to own it.The woodcutter stops and the commoner shouts that he knew the wood cutter is a thief who stole the jewel from Samurais wife.The woodcutter becomes speechless and he tries to get the baby from the Priest.The priest refuses and the woodcutter says he has got six children and this is not going to make him worse.The priest finds his humanity and the story ends by woodcutter carrying the child with him.
You can notice the bright sunlight in the movie which is very harsh, bright, dazzling through out the main incident. The lighting effects of this movie is considered to be one of the pioneers in Cinematography. Some times you feel its so intense and it even glares at you. I am not exaggerating it’s the fact. The Cinematography had been handled with such a precision in depicting a bright sunny day. I am comparing the movie’s editing which was made 60 years ago with today’s movies. I can see many movies today have failed due to editing which lose the path on the narration.
This movie was a big flop in Japan but the accolades from the western countries made the Japanese Critics speechless (Source: IMDB.Wikipedia).The movie gives you many aspects to look at the incident. From any point Akira’s view about the woman is appalling .From many scrutiny he has tried to prove her instability of mind. This is a bold and witty movie which was released when Japan was re structuring itself. There are movies which makes you to confuse but this movie lets you to make the decision of yourself. This 95 minutes movie made me to believe each one narrating the incident I think that’s the success of Kurosawa. In the end, we are left recognizing only one thing: that there is no such thing as an objective truth. It is a grail to be sought after, but which will never be found, only approximated. Kurosawa's most brilliant move in Rashomon is never to reveal what really happened. Rashomon is, frankly, one of the greatest movies ever made. It is Kurosawa’s essay on the darkness of the human soul, yet the attempt to grasp into the darkness for goodness and selflessness, even if it all might be, as one character observes, “make-believe.” The movie has not even lost its shine even today and I feel the brilliance and efforts of the Akira Kurosawa’s team.
Read from a review of Cinema art:” I think that Kurosawa is saying that, much like the scenes in the woods, the world is dense with sin and hurt, but the sun still shines and pokes through the foliage. It is therefore our job to reach for the sun when we can see it, and when we cannot, to take shelter from the rain. That sun, in a world full of contradictions, is only truth worth embracing”
In English vocabulary there is a term called Rashomon effect which was coined after this movie.This movie Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa brought Japanese movies and legendry Akira Kurosawa to Western audience.
The Rashomon effect is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. (Source :Encyclopedia.com)
The above description tells you the story. The film is made in a unusual narrative style which gives the impossibility of obtaining the truth from witnesses of Murder and a rape. There is a flashback, flashback with in the flashback .But the beautiful part of it is you never feel confused where you are!
The story unfolds on a Priest and a woodcutter narrating their views on the murder of a samurai and rape of his wife. They narrate the incident of bandit Tajōmaru (Toshiro Mifune), the murdered Samurai Kanazawa-no-Takehiro (Masayuki Mori), his wife Masago (Machiko Kyō) and wood cutter narrating the events of one afternoon in a grove. Each story is mutually contradictory, leaving the viewer unable to determine the truth of the events.Even Samurais soul narrates the incident as witness.
The story comes back to the rainy evening with the conversation between wood cutter ,Priest and Commoner on their views again.They are interrupted by a crying baby.The commoner takes the clothes of the baby to own it.The woodcutter stops and the commoner shouts that he knew the wood cutter is a thief who stole the jewel from Samurais wife.The woodcutter becomes speechless and he tries to get the baby from the Priest.The priest refuses and the woodcutter says he has got six children and this is not going to make him worse.The priest finds his humanity and the story ends by woodcutter carrying the child with him.
You can notice the bright sunlight in the movie which is very harsh, bright, dazzling through out the main incident. The lighting effects of this movie is considered to be one of the pioneers in Cinematography. Some times you feel its so intense and it even glares at you. I am not exaggerating it’s the fact. The Cinematography had been handled with such a precision in depicting a bright sunny day. I am comparing the movie’s editing which was made 60 years ago with today’s movies. I can see many movies today have failed due to editing which lose the path on the narration.
This movie was a big flop in Japan but the accolades from the western countries made the Japanese Critics speechless (Source: IMDB.Wikipedia).The movie gives you many aspects to look at the incident. From any point Akira’s view about the woman is appalling .From many scrutiny he has tried to prove her instability of mind. This is a bold and witty movie which was released when Japan was re structuring itself. There are movies which makes you to confuse but this movie lets you to make the decision of yourself. This 95 minutes movie made me to believe each one narrating the incident I think that’s the success of Kurosawa. In the end, we are left recognizing only one thing: that there is no such thing as an objective truth. It is a grail to be sought after, but which will never be found, only approximated. Kurosawa's most brilliant move in Rashomon is never to reveal what really happened. Rashomon is, frankly, one of the greatest movies ever made. It is Kurosawa’s essay on the darkness of the human soul, yet the attempt to grasp into the darkness for goodness and selflessness, even if it all might be, as one character observes, “make-believe.” The movie has not even lost its shine even today and I feel the brilliance and efforts of the Akira Kurosawa’s team.
Read from a review of Cinema art:” I think that Kurosawa is saying that, much like the scenes in the woods, the world is dense with sin and hurt, but the sun still shines and pokes through the foliage. It is therefore our job to reach for the sun when we can see it, and when we cannot, to take shelter from the rain. That sun, in a world full of contradictions, is only truth worth embracing”
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