Movie Review: Rashomon (1950)

Rashomon (1950) co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa

A priest and a woodcutter are waiting out the rain in the old, derelict city gate called "Rashomon." The time is 12th century Japan, the city is former capital Kyoto. The country and the city have seen better days. A third man comes to the gate. He notices how glum they are; they tell him the most recent depressing news. A samurai was  killed in the forest. The woodcutter discovered the dead body, so he testified at the trial three days ago. The trial included depositions from the woodcutter, a bandit named Tajomaru, the dead man's widow, and a medium channeling the dead man. The varying stories don't match up, and it's very clear that the individual testimonies are given to make the witness look the best or most sympathetic in the story. The third man cynically harps on the fact that people lie to make themselves look good. The priest despairs of the existence of human goodness. Are all people selfish connivers?

The movie is very challenging in that it never spells out what happened in the woods, whether the samurai was killed by the bandit or by his own hand. Was the wife (who was raped by the bandit) complicit in the murder? Each version of the story has the characters behaving very differently. Even when the woodcutter gives a second version of his story, it still doesn't fit together with everything else. I've watched the film three times and at this point I'm fairly certain there is no way to figure out the actual details of what happened. So viewers may be frustrated by that ambiguity.

But the movie is not a police procedural. The thematic focus is not on truth but on the deeply flawed and broken way people treat the truth. The third man is very cynical and very modern in his understanding of human nature--everyone is selfish and works for their own good; either there is no evil (in which case, every action is morally okay) or everything is evil (in which case, why hold people responsible?). The priest has a classic crisis of faith--he sees no good in the world. There have been famines, fires, plagues, earthquakes. The world and the people in it are crumbling down like the Rashomon gate. The rain only adds to the dismal misery. Can anyone overcome their selfishness and act for the good of others?

The source material for the movie, author Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short stories "In the Grove" and "Rashomon" (reviewed here), clearly answer no. The movie presents Akutagawa's pessimism faithfully but adds a new twist at the end that undercuts that pessimism and gives at least one reason for hope.

The movie can also be viewed as an allegory for post-WWII Japan's situation, seemingly on the brink of ruin. Providing his countrymen with a glimmer of hope, an inspiration to get up and move on, is a beautiful thing.

Highly recommended (unless you really want the police procedural).

Book Review: Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a Japanese author writing in the early twentieth century (he died a suicide in 1927). His fictional settings range through the centuries. His attitude toward human nature is mostly consistent--cynical and pessimistic. The texts are straightforward accounts where the nuances come out of the characters' actions and thoughts.

1. In a Grove--Various witnesses give testimony to a High Police Commissioner about a rape and murder in a grove off of a major thoroughfare. Some incidental witnesses give some details and the main witnesses (the bandit assumed responsible, the assaulted wife, and the dead man who testimony comes from a medium) have stories that don't sync up. The truth is hard to find when people hold their egos in higher regard. The story is more of a character study than a mystery--the enigma of what happened is perhaps unsolvable.

2. Rashomon--Standing in the rundown city gate called Rashomon, a samurai's servant is waiting out the rain. He's just been fired so he considers what he will do. Like the gate, the city of Kyoto (the former capital of Japan) is run down. The prospects of earning an honest living are minimal, so he considers becoming a thief. His considerations are interrupted when he discovers another lost soul in the Rashomon. The bleak atmosphere of the story is unrelenting and the ambiguous resolution makes for a good discussion.

3. Yam Gruel--In the remote past, mid-level (i.e. non-descript) samurai Goi has no other desire than to eat yam gruel, then considered a delicacy. Goi is shabby in appearance, clothing, thought, and will, making him the target of practical joking by his superiors and inferiors. One superior, Toshihito, decides to play a long joke and takes Goi off to his splendid mansion in a distant province with the promise of yam gruel in abundance. The author makes a big deal about Goi being the hero of the story, perhaps only to satirize the hero's journey. If so, it is a rather bleak and joyless satire.

4. The Martyr--An orphan shows up at a Jesuit church in Nagasaki. The brothers take the child in because of a rosary wrapped around his wrist and the child's sweet and silent disposition. He grows up only to find horrible accusations made against him. The final twist in the story is a little too unbelievable (though a postscript claims the story is based on true events), spoiling an otherwise interesting look at Christians in Japan.

5. Kesa and Morito--Two lovers plan to murder the woman's husband. The story is told twice--once from the man's perspective, next from the woman's. Their differing details are reminiscent of "In a Grove," with the same sort of pessimism running through it.

6. The Dragon--Ancient storyteller Uji Dainagon Takakuni collects a story from a potter much like one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from one of the pilgrims. The potter's story involves a prankster Buddhist priest who puts up a sign by a local pond: "On March third a dragon shall ascend from this pond." The sign causes a sensation all out of proportion from the intended joke, leading to massive crowds camping out on the assigned date. Even the priest starts to think a dragon may rise!

The most upbeat of the stories (The Martyr and The Dragon) are from other source materials, making me reluctant to seek out more from Akutagawa. I don't mind dark themes and stories but these are a bit too unrelenting for me. I am sure to rewatch Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, which uses the story Rashomon as a framing device around the In a Grove story. Kurosawa has a more positive resolution to the story, which makes a fascinating contrast.