Rashomon Review

Number 97 on the top 1000 greatest films of all time is another Japanese jidaigeki film from the 50's: Rashomon.

Rashomon's narrative is simple.  A samurai and his wife are walking in the woods; a bandit then appears, ties up the samurai, rapes his wife and then kills the samurai.  Things become more complicated when the bandit, the wife, the samurai (through a medium) and the woodcutter who reports the crime, give conflicting testimonies in court.

Rashomon became well-known for pioneering the plot device of having different characters providing alternative and contradictory versions of truth.  This is what makes it such an interesting morality tale about how various people can manipulate the truth to suit their own purposes.  For example, the bandit wishing to portray both him and the samurai honorably claims that they duelled valiantly with the bandit being the victor.  However, when the wife gives her story, she argues that the bandit left after raping her, which is when she frees her husband and begs him to kill her so that she does not live with her shame.  Upon seeing his look of contempt, she faints and wakes up to find that he is dead.

Things become more complicated when the samurai himself, through a medium, reports his version of events.  After the bandit has raped his wife, she promises to leave with him, after she has killed her husband, so that two men do not know her dishonour.  The bandit, shocked by her request, instead frees the samurai who then kills himself.  Finally, the woodcutter throws a spanner in the works by recounting his story.  He says that the witnessed the rape and the murder, but didn't want to become involved in the trial.  The woodcutter claims that the bandit begs the woman to marry him, but instead she frees her husband and commands him to fight for her honour.  The samurai refuses saying that he will not fight for a spoiled woman, to which the wife emasculates both the samurai and bandit, and goads them into duelling each other.  After a cowardly, pitiful fight, the bandit kills the samurai, and the wife flees.  However, then the woodcutter's story is drawn into question, when it is revealed that he stole the samurai's dagger.

These four conflicting stories explore how malleable the truth can be and by the film's conclusion, it is not revealed what has actually occurred.  Rather it is left down to the viewer to draw their own conclusions.  And in situations like this, I always think this is the best thing to do.  Take elements from all available resources and draw your own basis.

Although, Rashomon was an interesting tale about human morality, it wasn't perfect.  It wasn't engaging throughout and there were many occasions where I did become bored.  Intercut with the courtroom scenes were flashbacks to the actual crime, however, these weren't as enthralling as they could have been.  Some of the crime scenes were shot without music and as such the dramatic tension just dissipated.  It wasn't that Rashomon was difficult to follow, it just wasn't nearly as interesting or as engaging as it could have been.

Whose story do you think is the truthful one? I'm inclined to believe the woodcutter, as he is theoretically the only neutral party.  The wife's story is too vague, the bandit's too romanticised and the samurai's too dubious, as it was told through a medium.  However, as already discussed, the woodcutter stole the samurai's dagger proving that everyone is selfish, dishonest and motivated by self-interest.