4 out of 5

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Agreeably, from what Ive seen, one of Kurosawas best films, Rashomon still remains stunted by the directors need to interject awareness into the storyline instead of letting the points stand on their own. From the first few camera shots, Rashomon sets itself up as a much different Kurosawa films from the more sprawling epics on which hes worked – tight close ups of particular spots of one location over which the credits are cast, the rain and shadows absolutely adding to the atmosphere. For all of the study placed on Kurosawas use of exterior elements to suggest mood, here, to me, it is best applied. The movie popularized a film template which has since been copied many times: a story told from several viewpoints. In this case we have a rape and a murder, and three people find shelter from the rain in the ruined Rashomon temple, where one is told four different versions of that same story, each with different takes on why things happened and how. This is also a tight movie: 88 minutes, compared to the 2hr+ running time of many Kurosawa films, and yet, this feels like one of the most patient. For the most part, every character and scene is chosen wisely – we do not get anything exterior that we do not need (even flashbacks to a trial exclude the judges image and voice). We also get a ravishing performance from Mifune as the murderer, as well as a typically put-upon portrayal by Shimura. However… Kurosawa creeps in after the first telling of our story to give us some commentary, and here we are taken out of the film. This has been my main problem with Kurosawa, that he seems so studied in his art and point of his films that it sometimes distracts from watching it. Because of this the repetition of the facts loses steam, and I did not find myself wondering too much about why or what happened. Nonetheless, this is still technically an excellent film, and remains the brightest example of the immense talent Kurosawa brought to the table.