1950 / 88 Minutes / Not Rated
Reviewed by Jason Jones

Akira Kurosawa’s films have influenced filmmakers for the last 50 years. From the acknowledgement of George Lucas of the influence of Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” on Lucas’s “Star Wars” films to his “Yojimbo” and “The Seven Samurai” being remade by Italian and American filmmakers alike. Although not his finest hour “Rashomon” is an interesting experiment that has had its fair share of influence over the years.

“Rashomon” has a story to tell, but Kurosawa chooses to tell it to us in a very unique manner. It is the story of the rape of a woman and the death of her husband. It’s a story that’s probably been told a thousand times, but never like this. Kurosawa takes a voyeuristic view of the film and shows us the story four times over from the points of view of the woman, her husband, a bandit, and a curious onlooker. These stories are all told to a curious man through flashbacks by two men who were present at an inquiry to determine what exactly happened to the husband and wife. The two men relay the stories to the audience through the device of the curious man. Each story has a certain amount of truth to it, it would seem, but just how much is up to the viewer to decide. The film never tells us which story is the right one and it would have been wrong to do so.

What makes this film work so well is Kurosawa’s yearning to deliver the story to us in as visual a way as possible. There is a minimal amount of dialogue, as a great deal of the story is told through the expressions of the actors as well as the ever moving camera. Shots flow gracefully together to create a near dreamlike state, which presents the stories to us as vivid hallucinations of the men telling them. The scenes at the inquiry enable the viewer to be further drawn into this world of deception by placing the viewer in the position of the interrogator. It appears as if we, the audience, are asking the questions and that the characters are answering directly to us. Once all of the testimony has been delivered it becomes clear that there are only two things that remain consistent throughout the four stories: the rape of the woman and the death of the husband. Everything else is open to interpretation, which makes for a very rewarding viewing experience.

My only misgiving about this near masterpiece is the performances. Toshiro Mifune’s performance as the bandit is exemplary with the exception of the incessant exaggeration of his character. Every time he laughs it is in a maniacal fashion that begins to grate on the nerves after awhile. He also runs around like he’s got a firecracker shoved up his ass. There shouldn’t be any problem with this, but something just seemed off about it. Otherwise, he delivers a fierce performance that is, for the most part, what one would expect of Mifune. The other performance that bothered me slightly was that of the woman. For the majority of the film she delivers a passionate performance that is full of sympathy, but during the last iteration of the story she catches the Mifune laughing flu and starts cackling like a bloody hyena. Granted she is under a great deal of strain at that particular moment, but it didn’t prevent me from being bothered by the fact that it seemed to go on and on for minutes of screen time.

The slightly skewed performances aside, “Rashomon” remains highly recommended viewing. There are two great swordfights that are an early indication of what Kurosawa had up his sleeve for his masterpiece “The Seven Samurai”. There are some great moments of tension on display here in the form of a scene between the woman and her husband, as well as a scene in which Mifune has been displaced from his sword and must reclaim it before being turned into a shish-ka-bob by his attacker.

For all the aforementioned reasons, you owe it to yourself to make “Rashomon” a part of your viewing diet. It’s not often you get to see a truly groundbreaking film such as this. If you are a fan of the ever so popular twist films that populate films nowadays, or just want to see what exactly it was that undoubtedly influenced filmmakers like Tom Tykwer (”Run Lola Run”) and Christopher Nolan (”Memento”) then you should see the film that most assuredly started it all: “Rashomon”.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2002 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.