Guide Note

Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Fast Facts

1. Director: Akira Kurosawa
2. Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryunosuke Akutagawa
3. Released: August 25, 1950
4. Runtime: 88 Minutes
5. Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori
6. Criticized in Japan; praised elsewhere
7. Inspired the term "Rashomon Effect"

One of the first films to tell a story from different points-of-view, Rashomon depicts a samurai's murder and the rape of his wife through the eyes of four witnesses, including the dead samurai.

The supposed killer, a bandit named Tajomaru (Toshiro Mifune), stated he seduced the samurai's wife, who submitted to him and later begged him to fight her husband to the death.

The samurai's wife (Machiko Kyo), on the other hand, claimed she was raped and begged her husband to kill her out of shame. According to her, she fainted and awoke to find the samurai dead.

The samurai (Masayuki Mori), though dead and spoke via medium, claimed his wife asked Tajomaru to kill him, to Tajomaru's surprise. In the end, according to the samurai, Tajomaru let them both go free, and the bandit killed himself.

All sides of the story are refuted by the film's objective storytellers, a priest (Minoru Chiaki) and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), who claims Tajomaru raped the samurai's wife, then asked her reluctant husband to fight for her, which leads to his eventual death by Tajomaru's sword.

In the end, even the woodcutter's story has holes, leaving both him and priest to wonder if there is indeed any good in humanity.

A breakthrough film about Man's subjectivity and perception, Rashomon is considered by many as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time. Though Kurosawa's home country complained of the film's "monotony" and "complexities," it won the 1955 "Academy Honorary" Oscar and the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival.

With a perfect 100% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, critics filmmakers to this day still hold all aspects of Rashomon--its cinematography, editing and directing--in the highest regard.