Rashomon...

You just need to watch Rashomon to understand why Akira Kurosawa is considered one of the finest directors in world cinema. For most of the viewers, it is an unsolved crime told in an interesting yet different fashion, and he/she can try to arrange the puzzles to form a solution. For movie freaks, it is much more than that; in addition to being a fine work of art, it conveys beautifully a simple message through a complex movie.

One can easily gather from the movie, that the main idea conveyed was that there is no absolute truth. We see 4 different people narrating a story, in completely different ways. While each of them tells their version of the story, the idea expressed is simply how much one’s perspective can distort reality. Or in the deeper sense, that there is no absolute reality. Reality is relative. We could relate it to the story of the blind men and an elephant, where 6 different blind men touch different parts of an elephant and each of them assume, interpret and argue that elephant looks like the part they touched.

Now, probably to what was mainly conveyed through the movie - the rationale behind the different stories. None of them were lying to protect themselves, as one can notice from the bandit’s and the lady’s story, they say they might have killed the samurai. Obviously, protection from law is not what mattered. In the bandit’s story, he glorified himself; he portrayed himself as a brave and a great warrior, who easily lures the lady. In the lady’s story, she portrayed herself as a helpless victim, trying to stand in dignity. In the samurai’s version, he was portrayed as being noble, brave, and the best thing he could do was committing suicide. In the woodcutter’s version, he is portraying each of the 3 characters equally culpable, which makes his act of stealing the dagger a trivial one. Even though, we tend to go with the woodcutter’s story because he is a neutral person, we cannot believe his as well, as he was the only person who admitted that he was lying (earlier).

In each of the version, we see that the person is glorifying themselves. It is not protection from law that mattered, but protecting one’s own ego. In every one’s story, we see the story-teller polishing his character so as to suit his ego. It portrays the insecurity in humans, the fact that no humans can survive without lying to themselves and creating a make-belief world where they seem to be a better person than they actually are. A simple message that no human is completely honest with himself!

All said, probably, the movie also conveys the message that no man is truly evil. One of the important character in the movie, the priest, keeps on saying about his faith in mankind, and in the climax, we see that it is restored. Probably, a subtle message that being a liar or a thief is not the lone way to judge one's character is also included.

Other than the message conveyed in the movie, the way in which the movie unfolds, the way the characters are molded, the way the 3 characters differ in the different versions, the acting, the sensuality of the woman, all plays a great role in shaping the movie into a masterpiece. For instance, the initial scene in which the woodcutter walks through the forest till he finds the dead body is breathtaking. We walk with him, and when he stands still seeing the body, we also freeze. Even such a trivial scene, shot with amazing beauty and intelligence, is what makes Kurosawa one among the best!

Usually, when a movie ends without a climax, or when no solutions are provided to the crime, I end up a bit frustrated (exception being Nolan’s inception). Have to admit though, this one left me fascinated!