"Rashomon"

Several years back, I watched Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and it made such an impression on me that I immediately looked up his entire filmography. Though I saw that his work is nearly universally acclaimed, I somehow didn't get around to watching anything else he's directed until last week.

I decided to start with "Rashomon" because its synopsis had stuck in my head and sounded very relevant for this moment in history.

Minor spoilers below.

"Rashomon" opens during a downpour and soon focuses on two men – a woodcutter and a monk – sitting in silence in the shelter of a ruined gate, staring at the ground. Eventually, the woodcutter manages to haltingly state that "I just don't understand at all."

A third man running in from the rain asks what he means, and we soon learn that the two men just witnessed a trial. A samurai has been murdered, and all three of the key witnesses claim to have killed the man. While they all agree on the material facts of the case – a sword, some cut rope, a dagger, a horse – their testimonies fundamentally disagree and cannot be reconciled.

"Rashomon" brilliantly refuses to portray one version of events as The Truth and the others as fabrications (deliberate or otherwise). As the monk and woodcutter explain what they heard, the third man laughs and wonders at their confusion:

"It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves."

However, the film isn't about whether one, or two, or all of the witnesses are lying. People's egos, beliefs, and emotions prevent them from accurately recounting an event. Our perspectives and interpretations can't be assembled like a jigsaw puzzle into some objective reality.

The woodcutter, monk, and commoner all disagree about the meaning of what they have heard and whether it reveals anything about human nature. And what does it mean to investigate a crime and serve justice when none (and all) of the participants speak the truth but only talk about their truth as they experienced – or wished to experience – it?

Indeed, we are never shown the outcome of the trial and are left to make our own assumptions, just like the film's characters.

Highly recommended.