Rashomon
(1950)
| Title: | Rashomon |
| Descriptor: | Three people meet at a run down old city gate, a priest, a woodcutter and a traveler. The woodcutter has a story to tell of a trial he was wittness to. The trial was against a theif named Tojimura. He was accused of raping a woman and killing her husband and perhaps stealing her dagger. Tojimura's version testifies that the woman was making advances towards him from the start. After they had intimate contact, she demanded that he kill her husband for fear of her shame. The wife claims that Tojimura raped her, then when she recounted the incident to her husband, he killed himself. The husband's spirit, speaking through a medium, claims that after the rape, Tojimura begged the wife to marry him. She demanded that he kill her husband first. Disgraced, the husband kills himself. The woodcutter, who found the body in the woods has yet another story to tell. After the rape, the wife convinces the two men to fight each other, the samurai accidentaly falls upon Tojimura's sword. Believe the story or not, the woodcutter claims its true. The stories we humans weave - and why? Fear, conscience, boredom? |
| Date Watched: | June something, 2001 |
| Comments: | I wonder if Archadia or Six Actors in search of an author had any influence from this? Acutally Rashomon is based on a book by some guy. Obviously I haven't read it. It touches on multiple questions of the narrative - what is real, what is fiction? Perhaps this movie answers the question of why it is so difficult to find what truth is under all the stories we tell. They meet at a gate, a cross roads so to speak, and each leave, changed from the story told. The woodcutter with a child, a story that is yet to be told. I liked this movie...especially becuase I watched it while I was taking my literary criticism course or something. Mifune shines as always. =) |
