BIG IN JAPAN WEEK : "RASHOMON"

RASHOMON
Now, over time we have been together (and believe it or not it’s over a year now… I can’t quite believe it myself, can you?) You may have noticed that if I like one thing in life it’s a good, old fashioned “whodunit”. Now, when I stumbled into viewing Rashomon for my “a film a day” program I knew very little about it other than it was directed by master director Akira Kurosawa. I didn’t research the film any further; I had already watched “Dersu Uzala” and I thought watching another film by him would be an excellent way to garner the style of the director… I stumbled into a rather original whodunit. This is why I like Japanese art so much. Even if it’s a murder mystery (so to speak) they can put it in a way you never imagined, making the film something you would have never thought of – if you see what I mean. If a change is as good as a rest, I can assure you I feel well-rested after this one…
We are in Japan of the middle ages. A monk and a poor woodman are sheltering from the rain in an old ruined temple. They look particularly glum and thoughtful, so a third man who also runs to shelter from the rain asks them what is troubling them. They have been called as witnesses in a murder trial. They are confused, because the story presented to them is very curious indeed. You see, an infamous bandit has been caught as the suspect; his crime is to have murdered a wealthy man who was travelling from one city to another on horseback with his wife and to have raped the wife . The wife is alive, the husband is dead, but the three of them (the dead man who talks via a medium, the wife and the bandit) can’t agree on the sequence of events or even the way the husband died. Is there a sensible explanation to all of this? Or must we assume that even the dead man is lying, casting doubt on human nature for all times…
Rashomon is actually a very astute study of human nature. Why do men lie? Who is lying about what, and why? I loved the way that the viewer is not the “all seeing eye” but actually knows the same amount as the passer by who listens to the stories. Apparently Kurosawa called this film a “reflection of life”. So true… Everyone has their own interpretation of what is going on around them, or their own version of what they would have liked to happen anyway. Everyone lies to cover up what they feel is lacking in them and around them. When you read up about it, it’s full of technical innovations too, from the first use of the handheld camera to the first time the camera is actually pointed at the sun… It’s a very… Very serene film, pondering sagely about a serious topic. I like the way that in a lot of Asian art, specifically Japanese art, does not place itself “above” the viewers. It doesn’t place itself below the viewer either necessarily. It’s a feeling of mutual respect and admiration, presenting and discussing an argument… Rashomon is no doubt a very important film cinematically speaking, so you should watch it as a cinephile as well, but beyond that, I feel it’s also a very good example of all that is “good about Japanese cinema… A must see in my book…