Compared to A Moment of Innocence, Rashomon is a relatively straight-forward film. It manages to question the truth without ever evoking any reality outside the world of the film. It takes place in a purely fictional scenario. The film starts during a rainy day in the Rashomon gate where a woodcutter, a priest, and a commoner meet to discuss a recent murder. As I stressed in Part I, this is the level at which most films exist, and should be seen as true, within the context of the story. The woodcutter and the priest begin to tell the three stories they both heard earlier in court from the witnesses of the murder. As of this point in the film, the audience has no reason to mistrust what they see, since both the woodcutter and the priest agree at least about what they heard in court. Then, the film shows the versions of events from the points of view of those involved.
Akira Kurosawa, the director, was smart enough to understand that each flashback is subjective. The different characters are like the directors of their own flashbacks, the films within the film. In a masterful move, Kurosawa is able to explore each character’s values and fears by examining their version of events. The bandit claims he killed the samurai in glorious battle. He values his strength, and his might in battle. His story features the most elegant and spectacular stunts and fights of all the film. The wife claims she killed her husband because he was unable to protect her. Afraid to be rejected as “spoiled goods,” she killed her husband ironically to keep her virtue. The Samurai claims he committed suicide, since he was powerless to defend his wife. In his version, no one defeats him, and he gets to keep his honor, which is crucial for a samurai.
The film does not end there, however. The woodcutter, notices the bandit, left out one story: his own. In the woodcutter’s final version, the bandit begs the samurai’s wife to marry him, the wife betrays her husband, then frees him and sets the two men against each other until they fight like animals, and the bandit is able to kill the samurai by pure luck.
Some might say this version shows the truth, since the woodcutter has no incentive to lie. However, the woodcutter’s story merely reflects the his current mistrust of humanity by showing all human beings as corrupt and selfish. Kurosawa never reveals what actually happened, but he did show the truth of the personalities of his characters. Even though no one tells the story how it really happened, they all tell the story how they wished, or maybe truly believe, it happened thus giving the audience invaluable insight into the truth about themselves. Kurosawa was not interested in letting the audience know the objective truth. Instead, his goal was to show how human beings warp the truth for their own selfish benefits.
Even though Rashomon may make audiences question the objective truth and the selfish nature of humanity, it is still a film by Akira Kurosawa, a very optimistic human being. He finds a way to end the film in an hopeful note, thus injecting the film with his positive vision of the world. By the end of the film, the priest finds a baby, which the woodcutter wants to take. At first, the priest is reluctant to give up the innocent baby because he knows the woodcutter lied about what he saw, and he has lost faith in humanity. However, the woodcutter tells him that he has a large family, and can take care of another baby. It is implied that he stole a dagger from the crime scene to support his family. The priest becomes more sympathetic towards him and hands him the baby saying, “thanks to you, I think I can keep my faith in man.” Then, as the woodcutter leaves the Rashomon gate with his baby, the sun comes out in sharp contrast to the pouring rain that pervaded the film, signaling for a better future to come for the woodcutter, the priest and the newborn child.
Verdict 4/4
Rashomon (1950) 1h 28min
Random Thought
- Rashomon was the first film to shoot directly at the sun.
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