Critique of Society in The Film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon is a film by Japanese movie creator Akira Kurosawa. This infamous film truly lets you use your imagination to come up with your own ending. The film uses multiple perspectives about the same event to show the importance of truth and perception in our society. When you view this film, you create your own thought on who you think is telling the truth. Rashomon gives us an in-depth view on how people are willing to lie at all cost.

I will first reflect on the commonality between society and the characters in Rashomon. Through the use of four different stories from one event, Rashomon shows the weakness of society. All four characters do share a common idea though, they are all trying to stay out of trouble and make themselves appear as a better person than they actually are. Other people’s perception is all that matters to us and we believe that we are no better than what people think. Just like the wife, bandit, woodcutter and samurai it is almost impossible for us people to be truthful with ourselves. At all cost, we never view ourselves as bad, there is always some horrible excuse to help us try to justify our actions. It is at this point our egos take over and we do what makes us look good even if it hurts someone else and isn’t truthful. These exact steps are what happened to the characters in the film, they only become worried about their well-being. They were willing to make up a story and lie to so they don’t have to feel bad about themselves, all four characters were simply too weak to face the truth. No accountability and public image are what stopped these characters from telling the truth about a murder. It may be hard to notice, but the fact of the matter is most people in our society are just like the characters in Rashomon.

After evaluation, you can see one thing in common about all four of the lies by the characters, they are told so that the characters have an excuse to what happen. In every explanation except for the woodcutter the teller was described as the murder. They all blamed each other causing no stories to match up and the truth to be unknown. The woodcutter is unlike the others though, he didn’t actually kill anyone but still in the wrong because he stole the dagger, and more importantly ended up lying to the police. These characters were not able to put their egos aside and all told a false account of what actually happened. There is only one important question that goes unanswered what actually happen in the murder? Just like the characters, society are willing to lie about anything and everything just so that they are not at fault in times of hardship.

First up was Tajomaru, the bandit, was the first to be told by the court. With little explanation, he ends up saying he had no plans to kill the man, but did have plans for the women. Even though it was he, himself who actually did commit the murder, he comes up with this horrific explanation that the woman is the reason that the man was killed. The most horrifying thing is throughout the explanation of his story he makes it seem honorable because he said “well the man did actually put up a good fight.” This smart alic response was used to try to help justify that the murder was ok. The bandit’s whole goal when telling his story was for us to believe him and make him look like a good guy. Humans don’t realize it I the moment, but it is their ego that makes them lie about themselves. We always want to have a good public image and never want to be viewed as a bad person. As humans, the only way that we can begin to feel good about our self is our ego. We view it as no problem to lie about a situation just so our ego can get bigger. As a whole society never wants to face the facts of who they really are when the look at themselves in the mirror. In Tajomaru case, deep down inside he knows he is a criminal and responsible for the murder, but he was willing to bend the truth and lie. Just like Tajomaru, society is willing to lie just so they feel better about themselves.

Now why after the bandit just admitted to killing the man is the story even relevant? That’s where the woman or wife of Rashomon comes into play. She tells a story that ends up making her look like the victim instead of her wife, I remind you this was her husband who died and she is even willing to lie about that. Through a series of events that is shown in the film, after fainting the woman wakes up to her husband with a dagger on his chest lying dead in the woods. While in court, she used a tactic so that the court will feel sympathy for her. She states, “What should a poor, helpless woman like me do?” This small statement is all she needs to get the target off her back. Following her statement, the commoner makes a statement really making the court question how valid her story is, he states “But women use their tears to fool everybody. They even fool themselves.” The commoner had realized what was happening and that she was trying to gain sympathy from the others. This is just like a judge in society who questions the truth to get to the bottom of a case. In this instance lying us used as a way to gain sympathy. With her story, she is trying to make herself look like a better person than she actually is, she says she would even rather die. Now next time you hear about a trial on TV think about how much people are willing to lie one so they are not guilty and two so their public image is preserved.

Just when you think the story is crazy enough already you find out an even more chilling story. Although he is dead now we hear the story of the dead man. His story is explained with the use of a medium. In summary, he says that he feels that he had no reason to live anymore and ends up blaming his wife. The man uses a tactic to make others feel bad and accountable even though at the end of it all he is the who who killed himself. This is the use of guilt. This is not only used in Rashomon, think about the use of guilt in our society. Things such as money or fame can be used to make someone peep, it is then when individuals start to become guilty and horrible about themselves. But in fact, sometimes it’s not even their fault they just get someone to buy into their shenanigans and make them feel bad. Just like the rest of the characters stories, they all make them look like the good guy and others like horrible people. Just let it sink in, a man was willing to lie about his own death!

Now the X factor, the woodcutter. We eventually find out that the woodcutter did actually witness the murder himself. In my opinion, this makes his story the most reliable. He finally gets to the point that he feels that it was the women’s fault that the man died. But the main factor about the woodcutter was his tampering of evidence. The woodcutter took the dagger that was used to kill the man, and never told his story to the police. Due to the fact of not wanting to get involved he never told the police. In the film and real life this shows the weakness of man, it can even involve a death of someone but people are willing to not speak up and look for justice. Unlike the woodcutter, we the people need to rise up and hold everyone accountable in all aspects of life.

After viewing this movie, you can only but help to come to the conclusion that society is fruadalent, corrupt, and not able to face the truth. Through the movie you learn that truth is sometimes not obtainable. But, most of all it shows you no matter what the circumstances, people are willing to lie at all cost.