#92 Rashomon

1950

Director : Akira Kurisawa (Seven Samurai  - Also in the top 100)

Lead: Toshiro Mifune (Also in Seven Samurai)

For a 63 year old Japanese film, you will be please to hear I didn't hate it, That doesn't mean I liked or understood it.

After I finished watching it, I was again left scratching my head and asking, what have I just watched.This wasn't the same feeling after I had watched 2001 A Space Odyssey, because that was just weird, Rushomon left me wondering if I had either missed something or it just had no ending.

So apparently 3 of the assistant directors went to Akira (the Director) and told him they didn't understand the movie, he explained it and 2 of them were happy, the other one still didn't get it. So if they didn't understand it, and they were directing it, what hope have I got?? any way, here is what I thought.....

The basic plot revolves around the murder of a man. There are 4 accounts of the murder all of them different. The Bandit (Toshiro Mifune) says he killed the man to win the love of the now dead mans wife. The wife's account where she says the Bandit ran off, she blacked out and when she woke up he was dead. Bizarrely there is the dead mans account via a medium where he says he killed himself because he heard his wife say she would run away with the bandit and lastly there is a witness' view and he  said (I think) the men looked like they were possessed by the woman, and they were fighting for her affection.

I think the basic underlying message is that all people lie, even to themselves (apart from me of course ;-/ ). The flash backs show what actually happened, but in 3 different ways from each persons perception of what did happen. The clever part of the movie is that all of the flash backs are true, but all of them are lies also, a man did die, which they all agree on, but trying to protect themselves, they all lie about how it happened, if that makes sense?.

Thankfully this movie was only 1 hour 28 minutes long, unlike other old movies of this era. So it seemed to go by pretty fast, just the right length in my opinion. 

Now, hands up who has seen or even heard of this movie, none of you?? Thought not. So how the hell is it in the top 100. I can say hand on heart, this is not better than 1000 movies I have seen before, so who the hell is voting on IMDB? it would have to be media studies students for sure, Do they not realize I have to sit here and watch this?.

On with the scores....

Visual
4/10 - Small scenes, ridiculous fight scene at the end. 

Sound
2/10 Pretty shitty. Nothing more to add here.

Acting
4/10 - Basic, random laughing by the characters did my head in.

Plot
6/10 - Confusing but good, made the film go pretty quickly.

Ending 
4/10 - No real conclusion to what happened and who killed who, but does leave you asking questions, and I strangely like that sometimes.
Final Score

20/50

Not the best score for a movie that apparently opened up Japanese cinema to the western world, but I would say I did prefer this to 2001 ASO.

Total Movie Minutes So Far - 1169 
  
Next up is ..... Amadeus. Another movie I have never heard of or seen...

Please Like, Subscribe, share and add comments 

Thanks, Luke.