The Classics Corner #2: Rashomon

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Producer: Minoru Jingo

Writers: Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Kichijiro Ueda, Fumiko Honma, Daisuke Kato, Minoru Chiaki

Music: Fumio Hayasaka

Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa

Editing: Akira Kurosawa

Distribution: Daiei (Japan), RKO Radio Pictures (US)

Release Date: August 25^th, 1950 (Japan); December 26^th, 1951 (USA)

Running Time: 88 min

Rashomon is one of those towering classics of world cinema that’s impossible to gloss over when studying film. Over a year ago when I started seriously looking at film and getting my blog together it was one of the first films I watched. From the first frame the film’s sensual power overwhelmed me and didn’t let go. Rashomon remains one of my favorite films to this day. It’s also important for helping to open Japanese cinema to the western world along with Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu and Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, and it was also the film that made Akira Kurosawa a household name. For these reasons alone it seems essential that Rashomon be the second film we take a look at here on The Classics Corner.

Rashomon is a series of flashbacks within flashbacks. The film starts with The Woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) and The Priest (Minoru Chiaki) seeking refuge in the Rashomon Gate from a torrential rainstorm. When a Commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) joins them, The Woodcutter and The Priest begin to recount a tale from earlier in the day. The film flashbacks to a court where several strangers who all witnessed the same crime (the rape of a woman and her husband’s murder), each person recounts the tale from a differing point of view, and it isn’t long before emotions run high.

Though Kurosawa wasn’t the first to use a fragmented narrative to deliver his tale, nobody else had really explored the potentials of using a fragmented narrative that deeply until Kurosawa. The narrative device isn’t used as a gimmick here, but rather to enhance the tail. The viewer is thrown right into the middle of the action and feels just as disoriented as the characters are. Still Kurosawa makes room for strong human drama, and the characters while not fully developed still convey strong human emotions. The acting is on the melodramatic side, but those used to Japanese films of the period will have no problem here, and the film boasts a strong performance by Toshiro Mifune as the bandit. Mifune brings humor, arrogance, and humanity to his role.

Kurosawa’s direction is sublime, and almost transcends the boundaries of cinema. From the opening shot of the rain soaked temple to the lush forest environment Kurosawa directs with a sensuality that never lets up. The scenes of the sun shining through the canopy as the wood cutter walks through the woods juxtaposed with the horror of the corpse’s hands is sublime. The swordfights in the forest are directed with a gritty, in your face style that directly opposes the stylistic beauty of Kurosawa’s other samurai films such as Seven Samurai and Ran, but in no way diminish the director’s eye for a strong action sequence.

Overall Rashomon is a great film; moving, exciting, and even funny at times it was the first masterpiece from a great filmmaker. Those uninitiated to the world of classic foreign film will also find Rashomon to be a strong starting point as it includes many familiar elements we see in the movies today. A fantastic film and a masterpiece on every level.