Word: rashomon
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...Rashomon...
...extraordinary event occurred at the Venice Film Festival. "Rashomon," a Japanese film by an unknown director named Akira Kurosawa, took first prize. The film caused heated debate in England and the United States, for "Rashomon" was unlike any film the Western critics and public had ever seen. The New Yorker dismissed it in a vitriolic and condescending article. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times championed it. Most people wondered that a good film should have come out of Japan at all, attributing its merits to the effects of the American occupation. In any case, RKO Pictures picked...
More than 30 years later, as "Rashomon" makes its appearance at the Harvard Film Archives as a bona fide classic of world cinema, it is difficult to see what all the fuss was about. The respect that Japanese cinema commands nowadays, respect won in part by "Rashomon" prevents one from imagining a time when this wasn't the case, a time in which "Roshomon" would have come as a bomb of sorts...
That said, it is obvious to the viewer why "Rashomon" is considered a masterpiece. The film's plot is extraordinarily simple. The frame narrative of the film, set in the 8th century, takes place at the Rashomon, the great gate of the imperial city of Kyoto, which lies in ruins. A woodcutter, a Buddhist priest and a traveler have gathered at the gate to seek shelter from torrential rain, and to pass the time they discuss a trial of a crime that took place some days before. A samurai and his wife were traveling through the woods. They were assaulted...
...film, we are no closer to knowing the truth, and that is in great measure the movie's theme, the very unknowability of truth. Kurosawa's film has become so associated with this notion that the word "rashomon" has passed into the language, and is used to describe a situation in which the truth cannot be known. This notion of truth is a slight and hackneyed one. That Kurosawa was able to create "Rashomon" from this is a testament to his mastery and genius; it is a case of a film rising above its material. "Rashomon" is an example...