Kudos for consistently selecting great films. Rashomon is especially interesting on the heels of 12 angry men where we had a group of people all perceiving someone's guilt through the prism of their beliefs. I'm 68 and have been watching foreign films since I was exposed to them in my teens. I was lucky enough to see them back in the day where some theaters played a different double feature everyday. Great pick Henry, keep it up!
As you know, the number of subscribers is inversely proportional to the quality of the channel. But I hope you continue with the quality... and I hope your subscribers increase.
The Rashomon Effect. Very influential technique. My reaction upon first watching it was to rewatch it. And I'm still unconvinced what happened. I think that was largely the point. Humans are self-serving at best and even villains think of themselves as the heroes in their own story.
Agreed, I believe the point of the story is that there is no completely believable witness. We can perhaps believe the Woodcutter more than the others, but he also has a stake in making his actions forgivable or less objectionable: robbing the dead; and (it's been a long time time since I've watched this) perhaps not even reporting the incident so that he could take advantage of his theft without being caught or implicated. Yes, I think this is probably, at least for modern audiences, the root of all the other movies and shows that feature this sort of thing. We would have had unreliable narrators in novels, for instance, but not the number of them surrounding a concentrated event, the way we have here. I first saw this on public tv, with my parents, before I was twelve years old: PBS often had festivals of classic movies, and this was one of them. It made a deep impression on me. Interestingly, several years of researching eye witness accounts prove the Rashomon Effect: almost immediately after an incident, the mind will begin to embroider and/or subtract from the incident. For various reasons. It's barely even conscious. I'm willing to bet that each of the witnesses to this event truly believe at least part of what they're relating: no one will ever really know what happened in the grove. It's even fed into my take on history, which I love to study: one time, in university, our history professor sent us out to write a paper utilizing primary sources. As we filed out of the room, he called after us: "Remember. Question EVERYTHING." Primary sources don't guarantee truthful reporting, only truthful impressions or rationale.
I love the many times when the camera follows a character running through the undergrowth of the forest which must have bern difficult to set up, and the glimpses of sunlight through the leaves. Beautifully done location cinematography.
Takashi Shimura is one of Kurosawa's goto actors. He really shines in Ikiru (1952). But he also shows up in Godzilla (1954) and several subsequent kaiju films that have little to do with Kurosawa. Hollywood remade Rashomon as The Outrage (1964), starring Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson, and William Shatner. It's a good remake, but not as good as the original. Kurosawa remakes can be great, as with A Fistful of Dollars (Yojimbo) and The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), but few directors dare try anymore.
Kudos for consistently selecting great films. Rashomon is especially interesting on the heels of 12 angry men where we had a group of people all perceiving someone's guilt through the prism of their beliefs. I'm 68 and have been watching foreign films since I was exposed to them in my teens. I was lucky enough to see them back in the day where some theaters played a different double feature everyday. Great pick Henry, keep it up!
Wonderful film, great choice, and incisive commentary (as usual).
As you know, the number of subscribers is inversely proportional to the quality of the channel. But I hope you continue with the quality... and I hope your subscribers increase.
The Rashomon Effect. Very influential technique.
My reaction upon first watching it was to rewatch it. And I'm still unconvinced what happened. I think that was largely the point. Humans are self-serving at best and even villains think of themselves as the heroes in their own story.
Agreed, I believe the point of the story is that there is no completely believable witness. We can perhaps believe the Woodcutter more than the others, but he also has a stake in making his actions forgivable or less objectionable: robbing the dead; and (it's been a long time time since I've watched this) perhaps not even reporting the incident so that he could take advantage of his theft without being caught or implicated. Yes, I think this is probably, at least for modern audiences, the root of all the other movies and shows that feature this sort of thing. We would have had unreliable narrators in novels, for instance, but not the number of them surrounding a concentrated event, the way we have here.
I first saw this on public tv, with my parents, before I was twelve years old: PBS often had festivals of classic movies, and this was one of them. It made a deep impression on me. Interestingly, several years of researching eye witness accounts prove the Rashomon Effect: almost immediately after an incident, the mind will begin to embroider and/or subtract from the incident. For various reasons. It's barely even conscious. I'm willing to bet that each of the witnesses to this event truly believe at least part of what they're relating: no one will ever really know what happened in the grove. It's even fed into my take on history, which I love to study: one time, in university, our history professor sent us out to write a paper utilizing primary sources. As we filed out of the room, he called after us: "Remember. Question EVERYTHING." Primary sources don't guarantee truthful reporting, only truthful impressions or rationale.
I love the many times when the camera follows a character running through the undergrowth of the forest which must have bern difficult to set up, and the glimpses of sunlight through the leaves. Beautifully done location cinematography.
Takashi Shimura is one of Kurosawa's goto actors. He really shines in Ikiru (1952). But he also shows up in Godzilla (1954) and several subsequent kaiju films that have little to do with Kurosawa. Hollywood remade Rashomon as The Outrage (1964), starring Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson, and William Shatner. It's a good remake, but not as good as the original. Kurosawa remakes can be great, as with A Fistful of Dollars (Yojimbo) and The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), but few directors dare try anymore.
Ikiru is required viewing imo. They did a remake with Bill Nighy. I enjoyed it, mainly because I'm a Nighy fan, but the original is still the best.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Have you considered that none of the stories are the truth?
I suppose that's possible 🤔 but I feel like the woodcutter's story is the closest to the truth.