Now this is a movie I have hardly heard about until recently. It mostly came to my attention when a few people from this group I follow on Facebook called Film Buffs was talking about it (I don't remember how for sure), so with just about little to no idea at all about this movie, I borrowed it from the library and watched it.
Plot: the movie is set in the city of Rashomon, where a woodcutter and a priest are taking shelter beneath the gate of the city. The woodcutter is disturbed about the case of a recent murder. A commoner comes by to take shelter with them and when he notices the woodcutters disturbance, he allows him and the priest to tell him how the woodcutter discovered the body of the murdered man and of the separate testimonies about what happened to him from the bandit that killed him, the murdered man's wife, and another testimony that should not be mentioned for those who haven't seen the film.
This was a very well put together movie. The acting was well done, the cinematography was nicely put, and the sort of meaning behind the story - while I won't give it away- was a little interesting. And I liked how the testimonies differed from each other from what it actually turned out to be.
Acting/Characters:
Roshiro Mifune/Tajōmaru: Now I am not an expert on actors and stuff from Japan back in those days (or even now for that matter) but I do remember Mifune before when I watched Seven Samurai. And it's nice to see him basically being the same sort of personality that he had in that film. That while he had his serious side, his character is also rather wild, and while his character was drunk in the Seven Samurai, we still get that kind of energy from him. So it was nice to see that and having someone I could recognize from any other Japan film from back then.
Machiko Kyo/Kurosawa Akira: Her character was interesting when it came to how it was different during every story. This was roughly the case with Mifune too, but I think the change was a little bigger for her.
Takashi Shimura/Woodcutter: He did a good job. It was interesting in the end when the commoner makes all those accusations against him and what he does after the commoner leaves. And to top it all, he's played by the guy that played Kambei Shimada, the leader of the samurai in Seven Samurai.
Music: The music was good. Or at least as good as Japanese music can be as far as I can tell since I'm not from Japan and all that.
Editing: Now there's something really odd and kind of interesting about the editing. Apparently, when a scene was shot, it was done with several cameras at the same time, so that the director could "cut the film freely and splice together the pieces which have caught the action forcefully, as if flying from one piece to another." and he also used short shots edited together that trick the audience into seeing one shot; and it got to the point where there being a total of 407 separate shots in the body of the film which is more than twice the number in the usual film, and yet these shots never call attention to themselves. Do I have to explain how that's interesting yet messed up? I mean if they actually tricked the audience to thinking some of the shots were actually shown all in one shot...then I'm left wondering how they did it and when are the actual cuts on those "shots"
And that's my review for Rashomon, it has a clever story, a couple of familiar faces from Seven Samurari, and apparently some clever but messed up editing.
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