One of the best movies
Added 10/31/2009
Check out more foreign movies on [...].
Few classics in the cinematic world achieve such rare levels of cult status. This movie has not just inspired many movies, series and plays but also finds mention in literature. The beauty of the movie comes from the way how everybody's truth and lies differ. The truth is never found eventually because the truth is all dependent on the individuals and all of them are convicts in some way or the other. The guilt in each individual as well as the attempt to save themselves determines the stories. The movie actually throws up a very important question that if the essential data is kept intact the interpretation is completely dependent on the stakeholders. A masterpiece that has been around for over 50 years and even today anyone watching world movies will find it extremely enjoyable. Must watch
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Lies, Darn Lies, and Movies
Added 10/6/2009
In a brief introduction to this edition, Robert Altman talks about how 'Rashomon' influenced him as a director - how the day after watching he incorporated into his own work camera angles he'd first seen the day before. From the perspective of a film buff, even from a casual one, this is instructive and educational. Others who aren't concerned about film techniques and storytelling methods may wonder what all the fuss is about.
Part of the problem when dealing with groundbreaking films like 'Rashomon', and which is unavoidable, is that other filmmakers, like Altman, are going to pilfer from the original until it's as common as its imitations. Without clues, as a modern viewer, I already have trouble picking out exactly what it was that made the first film so unique, though when it's pointed out, as in commentaries, I do find it noteworthy. Not necessarily compelling though - and not the primary reason I have for watching a film.
As an average member of the audience, it's the story in which I'm interested. In fact, absorbing stories and different outlooks are why I seek out foreign films in the first place - I'm looking for a distinct perspective on the human condition. The way that it is told - the art of direction and editing - plays an important part in the effective transmission of that story from director to audience, and may even add depth to the story, but particular techniques tend to lose their surprising originality over time, especially in the case of pioneering, often copied directors like Kurosawa. So the question is, does 'Rashomon' still tell a compelling story after the once startling imagary is old hat?
It begins in a torrential downpour. Two men, a priest and a woodcutter, have taken refuge in the ruins of an abandoned gatehouse and are joined by a third, a boorish ruffian. He notices the others are under a horrible mental strain, and badgers them until they tell of the trial they had recently witnessed, and of four eyewitness accounts of a murder and a rape. Each participant's account is un-reconcilable with the other, until it is unclear if anyone is telling the truth.
While the on-screen events of the film may have been somewhat daring for 1950's America, the idea that people will twist their stories around to suit their own temperament and needs could hardly have been astonishing. Maybe my own cynicism gets in the way, but that the lies of the trial's participants would affect the priest and the woodcutter down to their existential core seems unlikely and contrived.
'Rashomon' is a critical favorite - it won the Oscar in 1951 for Best Foreign Language film, is in the top ten of director's favorites, and currently enjoys clear popularity in the film community as evidenced by its ranking on IMDB. Those factors, and the idea that the film dealt with the slippery notion of truth, led me to expect a truly engaging and thought-provoking film. By no means is 'Rashomon' a bad movie, but have to say I was under-whelmed. Of Kurosawa's films, I would handily recommend 'Throne of Blood' over 'Rashomon' for an intense movie experience - and even though it's a different type of movie, I'd say that 'Seven Samurai' is also a better choice.
I'm glad that such films as 'Rashomon' are still prized and in print - I enjoy seeing how the medium has evolved and learning about film in general. But it would be unfair to recommend unreservedly 'Rashomon' to those who are not likely to appreciate it for what it is - a good film with pioneering camera and storytelling techniques that will probably seem ho-hum by today's standard. Budding auteurs and film buffs will find much to value - those looking solely for morally and mentally challenging content will likely be disappointed.
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beautiful aporia
Added 8/18/2009
This film is both aesthetically beautiful and provoking of some of the long standing questions of our existence. In a world of relativist perceptions and competing ways of interpreting the world, can there ever be any such thing as absolute truth? Like Socrates arguing the sophists on the nature of virtue, truth slips away as we try to pinpoint it, and eventually we realize absolute truth is unknowable. Plato tried to construct that city of virtue and here we have a construction of the opposite of the absolute. Kurosawa constructed a world for the revealing of the impossibility of absolute truth, replacing it with hope in human kindness and empathy.
I view this film favorable alongside Bergman's "Through a Glass Darkly" as an investigation of our clouded moral compass, fractured perceptions, and potential for redemption in love.
The cinematography is stunning... especially the usage of light/dark in a symbolic fashion, the images of the rain, and the decay of the building that shelters them. The acting is superb (Toshiro Mifune is always great) and the narrative captivating.
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Haiku review: Kurosawa at his finest - excellent edition of this stunningly filmed story about the collapse of order and truth
Added 7/21/2009
At the ruined gate
Hard rain pours without ceasing
Truth is elusive
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Rashomon: Limitation of the Mind
Added 5/3/2009
Without doubt, Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest cinematographic directors of all time.
He is a master in delivering a complex message in mind-penetrating fashion. He reveals to us the onion's innermost by carefully dissecting away each layer from the surface, providing us with a clear view of the layer underneath.
Rashomon is a story about the truth and the frustrating difficulty of finding the facts even in a seemingly simple event. A spectator tells the story. A judge must decide on a crime based only on testimony. He finds as many accounts of the crime as there are parties involved. Each story is different. In the end, the judge is left with as many realities as there are people involved. The contradictions of the witness accounts are so irreconcilable that they drive the story's teller mad. Kurosawa reveals the limitations of our mind to grasp actuality. The quest for truth in the story of mankind is a never ending journey.
I have written more about Kurosawa's movies here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2008/09/kurosawas-teachings-on-leadership.html
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One of the greats...
Added 9/30/2009
A cinematic giant, now on DVD.
Probably the best movie to ever come from the east, and the basis for some of the great American westerns.
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Criterion quality just enhances this great film
Added 9/5/2009
Having first viewed this film in a theatre over 30 years ago (a Japanese film festival no less... so they had an "original", not export version), it is still up there in my top 10.
I really do not want to duplicate other praise for this MasterWork - Bernabo's review covers it so well.
However it is worth noting that if you needed any other reason to buy this film, it is the Criterion label.
In Australia at least, Laser Disc was a rarity - mostly caused by the unrelenting greed of the Studios - who would not import them for sale or rental - but attacked any video shop that tried to, with legal injunctions et al.
Suffice to say I was convinced by the owner of my local video hire, a collector of note and sagacity, to buy this title as a laser disc as it was a Criterion re-master - and the first "commercial" version of the full 3+ hour release.
I am guessing this is the base material that went to the DVD issue.
At any rate, it was a superb result - my only regret it was not put on a blu-ray disc (really only for the convenience...)but that is just being picky :-)
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Eyeing another sacred cow qith my kebab skewers ready...
Added 7/28/2009
The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
It is no secret among those who follow my reviews that I tend to disagree with a lot of both critical and public choices for the best movies ever made. The Seven Samurai is currently ranked at #18 on IMDB's Top 250 list, and only two thousand-best lists I've ever seen have a Japanese film ranked higher on their lists than this one (the Halliwell Guide not only has a Japanese film higher--it ranks Ozu's Tokyo Monogatari as the finest movie ever made--while on IMDB's list, Spirited Away occasionally supplants it for a short time). And as you can probably guess form the opening, I disagree. While I understanding the reasoning behind the reverence--The Seven Samurai is, after all, the first modern action film, and is just as innovative as Nosferatu had been thirty years earlier--it's not really all that memorable when it comes to anything but its technical innovations. (It's also possible I just don't cotton to Akira Kurosawa's movies; the only one I've seen to date that's stuck with me for more than a few weeks is Dersu Uzala.)
Simple plot: a village is under siege by bandits, and the elders decide to hire out-of-work samurai to guard them. They get a mix ranging from the stern, masterful warrior to the illiterate samurai wannabe who's not afraid to break any rules necessary to make sure the job gets done (Throne of Blood's Yoshio Inaba and Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune, respectively). Much of the film focuses on the samurai's preparations for the village, the day-to-day lives of the villagers and the samurai, weaving in understated humor and pathos with the drama before the explosive action sequences.
Of course it's been influential; I can't think of a major action film made afterwards that doesn't co-opt one or more aspects from this movie. But just because it's influential doesn't mean it's immortal; one of the things about influential movies is that when so many people do what you did, some of them are bound to do it better. I don't think many people necessarily disagree with me on this; after all, one of the movies on IMDB ranked higher is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which ripped its structure straight from The Seven Samurai. (I have to say I wasn't that fond of that one, either, and probably for the same reason; glacial pace punctuated by action sequences that are entirely too short, especially given previous films like Alexander Nevsky that were much better paced). Still, while you're watching it, there's more than enough to compensate for the film's running time. I am not in any way saying that The Seven Samurai is a bad movie. It's a good movie, and it is without doubt one of the most influential films in history. But is it, from the standpoint of simply being a fun, watchable, perfectly-made film, one of the twenty best movies ever made? I think there are much, much better candidates for the title. *** ½
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