Understanding Akira Kurasawa’s 1950 Masterpiece Movie Rashomon
“Rashomon” a 1950 period psychological thriller Japanese movie written and directed by Akira Kurosawa is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made in the history of cinema. This movie won the “Golden Lion” award in the Venice film festival in 1951 and in 1952 won the “Academy Honorary Award” in the Oscars and with this movie, Japanese cinema gained a very respectable position on the international stage. This movie is based on a short story by the name of “In a Grove” which was written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. I will be talking about various aspects of this movie in this article and also shed some light on “The Rashomon Effect” which is a very important theme of this movie so please read this article to the end. This movie is highly recommended if you haven’t watched it.
The plot of the movie goes like this a woodcutter, a priest, and a commoner discuss the murder of a man (A Samurai). His body was found in the forest by the woodcutter. Witnesses and suspects testify in the court. The woodcutter, a bandit, and the man’s wife shared their accounts of what happened in the woods while the truth may exist somewhere within these stories, each of these individuals contradicts the other and eventually, the truth is indeterminable but why would people lie? The answer isn’t overtly provided in the movie but once in the movie the priest gives his thought as to why men lie, he says that “It’s because men are weak that they lie, even to themselves”. It is briefly suggested that men’s deceit comes from their own vulnerability. Men must lie or adjust to the truth to make themselves out to be more traditionally masculine. Men must be strong, powerful, cunning, and so on and so forth. Thus the stories they tell will reflect that in reality men may very well be weak and cowardly different men latch on to specific aspects of masculinity.
The husband commonly referred to as a samurai values his code of honor while the Bandit values his might and power. To prove his sense of masculinity the Bandit’s story focuses on the power he can enforce on others. To him might makes right, this is why the Bandit makes himself out to be more manly than the samurai. He is able to defeat and capture him demonstrating his power, he then follows the wife whom he says is both childlike but also fierce. He chases her and knocks her down leading her to cry he gets on top of her body and sexually assaults her. His story plays out like a power fantasy with the woman being something of an untamable animal so that he in turn can prove his manliness by taming the untamable this is why she eventually drops the knife and gives in becoming seduced by his charm. This happens of course because this is his story. After getting his way with her the woman instructs him to kill her husband as she must only belong to one man. Interestingly even in other characters’ accounts of the story, one could interpret the women as having ulterior motives behind her actions. Who and what the characters view as truth heavily revolves around their perceptions of gender roles in society with the wife of the late samurai existing as a crucial figure in each account of the event.
When the woman testifies she is in tears and is completely different from how the bandit described her this could very well be an act. She could be exploiting her socially perceived weakness in order to gain the best possible outcome of the situation alternatively, she could very well be telling the truth and this is how she ordinarily behaves under pressure it’s up to the viewer to determine the truth. Naturally, the woman’s story puts her in a relatively favorable position for the judges. She’s a victim of rape at the hands of the Bandit and is also subjected to judgment by her husband who stares at her in silence until her shame brings her over the edge. She asked her husband to kill her so that she would be brought to peace. The woman’s story may be believable but as scrutinized as the bandit’s.
The film takes on a more supernatural turn as men contact the ghost of the samurai through her female medium and like the others the ghost story is revealed to be unreliable. In the ghost’s account, the bandit states he had only assaulted her out of love. This is indeed a trivialization of sexual abuse. He states that she fell for the bandit and instructed that her husband be killed. The husband’s loathing for his wife becomes clear as he feels abandoned as a fellow man with honor who ultimately chooses the right thing. The Bandit refuses her directions and asked the husband to decide her fate. She escapes his clutches and runs away. A few hours later the bandit frees the samurai but the samurai commits suicide as he has never felt more dishonored as a man then he does at this point.
It is later revealed that the woodcutter has withheld information and had actually witnessed much more than he originally stated. While key information is still missing this story appears the most plausible at least on the surface. However, it could be fabricated to put the men’s minds to rest formed through synthesizing the most likely aspects of the other stories considering the man stated he lied before it does not necessarily mean he isn’t lying now. He is a man after all and men are weak. In fact, the woodcutter's story has more nuances than the others as he allegedly was nothing more than a mere witness. According to his account, the Bandit urges the weeping woman to agree to be his wife and threatens her if she does not accept it. She encourages the two to fight to the death for her as it is their place in society as men to decide who is really a man enough for her. Feeling disgusted by her the samurai states she is not worth the fight and then tells her to kill herself. Eventually, the woman is seen crying but it is also clear that she uses her seemingly sensitive nature to her advantage. Her husband remarks that her acting won’t work anymore. The Bandit sympathizes with her and voices his thoughts on the differences between men and women by saying that “Stop it. Don’t bully her. Women are weak by nature”. What is now generally regarded as sexist rhetoric is used here to counter another man’s misogyny. In this instance, the woman benefits from the social roles that simultaneously oppress her gender. She then calls the men weak as they are not showing themselves capable of proving their worth through a fight. She finally convinces them to fight with swords.
To add a bit of Freudian reading, the sword is a phallic symbol representative of the traditional man thus the nature of the fight between the two men with swords defending their masculinity and right to the woman is telling. They are reluctant to engage at first and they run away from one another after the first few sword clashes in fact there is much trembling and panting. The swords shake in their hands and the fight itself is sloppy and awkward. There was little grace to it unlike previous accounts highlights the weakness within the men who desperately attempt to prove their masculinity. After the bandit wins the fight he stabs the other man than like an unintelligent animal. The bandit chased after the woman, it was all for sex and power.
It is through this rather unflattering depiction of men that we find the most potentially honest of the stories. The men feel they must lie to preserve their own image in this patriarchal society but the truth remains unclear the priest and the commoner don’t entirely know who to believe stating that the men are all dominated by their own selfish desires the priest’s faith in people is tested as the pillars of truth crumble the already damaged Rashomon gate begins to break letting the rain pour inside. There still is a glimmer of hope a baby is found in a basket and the woodcutter agrees to raise the child just as he has raised six others casting a positive light on fatherhood, an aspect of masculine social roles. The priest's faith in humanity is restored, the woodcutter walks away with the baby in his arms and the Sun shines once more.
The Rashomon Effect
Now let’s discuss the main theme of this movie which is “The Rashomon Effect” also known as “Kurosawa Effect”. This refers to a phenomenon wherein the same event is interpreted in vastly different ways by different people. This is a very popular term in Psychology and this effect is named after this movie in which a murder is described in four different ways by four different witnesses of the same crime. It is often used to emphasize the point that people’s perceptions of an event can differ considerably based on their individual personal experiences. Thus it is entirely possible that an event may be described in different ways without any of the witnesses consciously lying. Like for example, some people may think that a decision taken by the govt. of a country is good while some may think it is not and the same is also true for various historical events.
