Rashomon

Screening on Film

Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
With Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo.
Japan, 1950, 35mm, black & white, 88 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.

One of the first Japanese films to receive worldwide acclaim, Rashomon is a twelfth-century tale of three men taking shelter under Rashomon gate. A woodcutter and a priest relate to a third man two conflicting stories concerning a bandit (Mifune) who has attacked a couple wandering through the woods. When the husband is found dead and the authorities intervene, the bandit, the wife, the husband (through a medium), and the woodcutter all present different, irreconcilable versions of events. The most striking aspect of the film remains its thematic focus on the complex and unstable nature of the truth.