Rashomon (1950)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Rashomon (1950) -- A. Kurosawa

The film that brought Kurosawa (and Japanese film more generally) attention in the West (despite a long tradition and some other good Kurosawa films like Stray Dog) really is all that it is cracked up to be.  The cinematography is beautiful, with dappled light on the forest floor or streaming through the leaves above.  Mifune chews the scenery (and inspires all subsequent caricatures) but this raving bandit stands in contrast to his earlier more sober parts (thus showing this to be a measured choice in acting style, not an inflexible mode). The famous story of the rape and murder in the woods is told in flashback from at least four points of view (but in fact recounted by only 1 or 2 characters sheltering under the Rashomon gate from a rainstorm).  The central theme here is the subjectivity of human experience (since all 4 versions vary in their details) and the way that we bend our perception for selfish ends. This may typically be a result of self-deception or motivated bias but, in Kurosawa's film, someone is obviously lying as well.  Otherwise things don't add up.  It is a measure of Kurosawa's genius (or a happy accident) that he allows this final ambiguity, even as he puts in a plug for the basic goodness of humanity in the face of evil.