A Response to Akira Kurosawa’s Film Rashomon

The film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa takes a different approach on film making. The film takes four unique viewpoints of the same event. However, the stories did not match each other, and this shows that everyone can translate an event in completely different ways. The place this took place in Kyoto which is a real place in Japan, however the film makes this place more of a state of being.

The priest is speaking to the peasant and the woodcutter and refers to a story of a violent death and a potential sexual assault in 12th-century Japan. The details of the story do not add up because the event is being interpreted in many different ways. In the end the film does not give a precise conclusion on who did what therefore the viewer of Rashomon has to come to their own conclusion. Perhaps the whole point of the film was to make the audience figure out the truth for themselves. I personally believe would have to re-watch the film to really grasp who was telling the truth. This film was hard to follow for me, but now that I know how it ends, I can piece together my own conclusion.

The mise-en-scene of this film was very well done. It captured the Japanese culture with its location and the actors costumes. The gate, building, and locations that filming took place in the film helped show the audience Japanese surroundings. In scenes that had were outside and at night (dark) implied awaiting doom. The mise-en-scene of this film helped develop the film further than just the narrative.

All in all, I believe this film is a psychological film that will make the audience to think. Kurosawa did an amazing job on creating a film that will draw in the audience and make the audience come up with their own conclusion of the truth.

I think that the hidden message in this film is that no real truth exists. By this I mean, everyone has their own truth and their own way of interpreting events. However, one chooses about the film's conclusion, Rashomon is a classical. Its significance is substantial and verifiable. Kurosawa's way of creating this film changed the film game. It gave a new way of film by expressing the same occurring event in a unique way to each individual. Also, Kurosawa was such a young creator/director and made such an impact on film making and he continued to do great film work.