It’s hard enough to convince people to watch black-or-white films or foreign subtitled films, but to convince someone to watch a black-and-white foreign film? I can’t imagine many people are going to be interested in that. I find this to be a real shame, because Rashomon is an absolute masterpiece, and it makes me sad that not that many people nowadays are likely going to give it a chance. I’d like to shine a light on this movie and tell you just why it’s so good.

Let’s talk about the story, first and foremost. The basic story here is that a samurai has been killed and his wife has been raped, and we’re trying to figure out exactly what happened. We hear different people give their accounts of what happened to a court, but these stories contradict each other on so many fronts. So, we hear the stories of what happened from four different people: a woodcutter that found the body, a bandit that killed the samurai, the samurai’s wife, and the ghost of the samurai, who’s being channeled through a spirit medium.

It’s through this story that we get what’s arguably the greatest thing about Rashomon, and that’s its unique narrative structure. You have to remember that up until this time, films pretty much exclusively told their stories in the traditional, linear, three-act structure sort of way. Rashomon revolutionized this new method of storytelling, where the same story is being told four different times, and what we’re trying to do as the audience is piece together what’s similar and different between the stories to get a better picture of the truth. I’ve seen this kind of format done in modern movies, and I always find it so fascinating. Rashomon really pioneered this method, and it’s such an interesting way to watch a story unfold.

It also really helped pioneer some filming techniques. This is one of the earliest movies to use a hand-held camera technique, which helps add some unease to the whole experience. It has a style that was not seen in many movies at the time, and it’s easy to see the influence it’s had since then. I also read somewhere that this was the first movie to ever have a shot where the camera was pointed directly at the sun, but I wasn’t able to fact check that. Either way, the movie uses natural lighting in really interesting ways. With trees in the forest obscuring some of the sun, these shots seemed to be intentional in communicating the film’s theme that the truth isn’t clearly visible.

I have to give a huge shout-out to the actors in this movie too. It’s so much harder to comment on an actor’s performance when they’re speaking in a language you don’t understand, so I do wish I could get the full impact of these performances. But even with the language barrier and just reading the subtitles of what was being said, I really felt the intensity in the performances. You especially see this with scenes involving the bandit laughing in a maniacal way, since this can be felt without hearing any words. The actors also make very good use of facial expressions that really helps communicate the emotions going on in the scenes. Rashomon is a movie that kept me engaged the entire time, and I think a big contributing factor to this is how gripping the performances were throughout.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Rashomon, though, is just how it explores the idea of reality vs. perception. We’re given four contradictory accounts of the same event, and it seems like everyone truly believes what they’re saying. Through the characters’ personalities, we get some insight into why they might have told their stories in the ways that they did, but it seems like there is some truth and falsehood to each of the four stories. Every story told seems to paint its teller in the most positive/sympathetic light, and so it’s hard to know what’s the truth and what the character thinks is the truth. It appears as if the woodcutter is the most reliable and least biased, but even his story can’t be fully trusted. The film smartly never gives a definitive answer as to what really happened, instead leaving it up to the viewer to hear all of the stories and decide for themselves. Because of all of this, the movie really left me thinking, and wanting to piece together all of the different stories to come to my own conclusion.

I think this movie has a really strong message about the truth not always being black-and-white, but instead existing somewhere in the middle. It shows how our perceptions and biases can influence what we believe to be the truth of a situation, and that’s such a fascinating idea to see laid out in a story like this. Like I said, I recognize most people will never watch this simply because it’s both black-and-white and in a different language. But I think this is a real shame, because this is one of the best old movies I’ve ever seen. It holds up really well too, so I don’t even have that modern disconnect I do with a lot of other older movies. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that I consider Rashomon to be an absolute masterpiece, and one of the finest examples of unconventional storytelling in film that I’ve ever seen.

5/5