rahomon movie review

1. Historiography
Rashomon
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2. Background:
• Rashomon was based on two short stories written by
Ryunosuke Akutagawa – Rashomon and In the grove
• The first of the two stories was entitled "Rashomon“ which
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considered attitudes towards thieving
• The outline of the murder plot in the film came from a
second tale called "In a Grove", which told of a murder in
the woods from various angles.
• ‘Rashomon’ is a reflection of life, and life does not always
have clear meanings
• Film is about the impossibility of obtaining the truth about
an event when there are conflicting witness accounts.
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3. The Film: Some reflections
• Only three settings in the film – Rashomon gate, woods and
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courtyard
• Some say that the sunlight symbolizes evil and sin – Wife
gives in when she sees the sun
• While some say the sun symbolizes good and darkness
symbolizes evil.
• There is a strong emphasis on the subjectivity of truth and
uncertainty of factual accuracy.
• Forest symbolizes the mystery of shrouding the actual
details of the dramatic events
• Some say it’s an allegory of Japan’s defeat in WWII
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4. RyunosukeAkutagawa
• Born in March 1892 and died in July 1927. Studied English
literature at Tokyo Imperial University. Wrote over 150 short
stories. Ended his life by committing suicide.
• Akutagawa was often inspired by India and Chinese fairy
tales. Japan had been influenced by India and China and
they were Japan’s West for a long time.
• It tells us that “the West” is absolutely changeable according
to several social factors. It is not a pure concept at all. We
must be aware of this when we study a culture.
• Kurosawa (1910-98) was a witness of Japan’s change from
the military dominant imperial country to the economic giant
of 21st century.
• Both of the authors prefer to talk about their stories as
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allegory.
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5. • What is the power of allegory?
• Allegory can be more than real, because it leaves us room
to think and imagine what is happening in the actuality. A
directly spoken story sometimes has an already determined
interpretation.
• We, readers, occasionally have more difficulty to participate
in the story. Taking advantage of the power of our
imagination allows us to think about the story deeply and
gain our own truth from there
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Allegory
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6. BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
So, what is the truth?
• “It was certainly me, Tajoumaru, who killed that
man…”―Tajoumaru―
• In Rashomon everybody makes something up, and certainly
tells a lie not only for the audience but also for themselves.
• However, their way of speech tells us that each of them is
with certain degree of reality on their stories. They convey
their story very realistically.
• What is the truth in this story?
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7. For you,
is this a picture of backside of a
young woman
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What do you see in this picture?
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or
the side view of an old woman?

8. • Fact is the most objective thing. Fact is something as it is.
However, we always fail to tell a fact accurately because of
the limitation of language and limitation of perception.
Incidentally, this is one of the main themes embodied in
Rashomon and In a Grove.
• Reality is a matter of feeling. As long as we feel something
is real after the serious exploration of the matter, even
though it is different from the fact, we are able to say it is
real.
• Truth is the most subjective one. It is a choice of reality. We
collect several pieces of object to get the entire image of the
object. Truth depends on which piece we employ.
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Fact/Reality/Truth
“Truth is in a grove”
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9. • Why did Kurosawa need to talk about fact, reality, and truth?
What makes him speak about the dilemma of human’s
memory, and unreliability of human mind?
• 1937-1945 Second Shino-Japanese War.
• 1941-1945 World War Ⅱ/ Asian Pacific War
• 1945 Japan surrendered
• Death was everywhere at that time, because of the war.
• The invisible authority might be behind us. Authority is
always invisible. Authority is an imaginary creation. There is
no authority in the world. Every authority can be
disillusioned. We might need authority occasionally, but we
should be aware that it is based upon our imagination.
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Authority is nowhere but in our imagination
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