“Rashomon” is an often imitated masterpiece that is best remembered for its famous structure.
There are many other excellent things, such as its cinematography and performance, about this film, but ultimately, it remains most relevant in its portrayal of people trying to remain good in a cruel world.
This film begins underneath the famous Rashomon gate in Kyoto, Japan, during a fierce rainstorm. A scruffy man joins a priest and a woodcutter to wait out the storm. He learns the two men have just witnessed a strange trial. A bandit has killed a samurai and raped his wife, but every witness to the crime has a different story about how it happened.
This film’s use of subjective flashbacks remains its most well-known contribution to the cinematic world. This technique has influenced movies as different as “The Usual Suspects” and “Hoodwinked!”
It is the source of the term “Rashomon effect.”
That is kind of ironic because the plot device does not come from the Ryūnosuke Akutagawa story “Rashomon.” It’s actually taken from an Akutagawa story called “In a Grove,” from which the movie borrows much of its plot.
However, there is more to this movie than an inventive structure. It features wonderful filmmaking from director Akira Kurosawa. Every shot is designed for maximum beauty and to move the story forward. His camera moves in a certain way that I have rarely, if ever, seen before.
This is the fourth film director Akira Kurosawa made with Toshiro Mifune. Mifune plays the bandit Tajômaru, and his performance is unforgettable. Every striking gesture he makes gives the impression that there is something deeply wrong with him.
The rest of the cast is great. Takashi Shimura makes excellent use of his expressive face as the woodcutter. Minoru Chiaki is affecting as the priest, who is truly the heart of this film.
This movie paints a thorough portrait of a bleak world. The Japan that the woodcutter and priest live in is wracked by numerous disasters. The constant, heavy rain further accentuates the grimness of 11th-century Japan.
“Rashomon” laments the breakdown of truth and of trust between people. It acknowledges how hard it can be to go on believing in goodness when disaster repeatedly strikes. The despair its characters feel is shared by many in our dark times.
In the end, “Rashomon” is optimistic about humanity’s future. It finds hope in the fact that ordinary people still possess a capacity for kindness.
There is the suggestion that small, individual acts of kindness will contribute to bringing humanity out of the perils of cynicism and destruction.
This is a relevant message that helps make “Rashomon” a brilliant and essential watch.
