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CrackdownHawk

Indonesia

CrackdownHawk

Indonesia
Rashomon japanese movie review
Completed
Rashomon
0 people found this review helpful
by CrackdownHawk
Mar 15, 2019
Completed
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0

Is this world a hell?

We really know well who Akira Kurosawa is. The one who has the most inspiration and influence of films industrial from all kinds of directors. Make him as a role model. “Rashomon” received a critical response by many people because the story was so different from other movies. This movie receiving many awards including Oscar nominations in the Best Art Direction by Takashi Matsuyama and H. Motsumoto in 1953. “Rashomon” became one of the movies raised the name of the director himself. It becomes one that destroyed the film industry. Introduced a term called a Rashomon effect. Directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, and Christopher Nolan took inspiration from this film. For movie-lovers, especially cult-classics, “Rashomon” became one of the influents with a new innovation at the time.

It was based on two stories by Ryûnosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” and “In a Grove”. Kurosawa didn’t take much in the form of material and frames. He takes every perspective later we would face a philosophical question and answer. Who is righteous and who is a liar. Here, you are the “police” where the audience is the perspective. The actor is directly facing the audience’s on-screen. This is life and death. It’s a “guilty or not” situation. A bandit just killed the husband of the wife he raped.

The way of Akira Kurosawa takes every of the shot as well as when I first watched “Seven Samurai” where he used the weather and fixed cameras more often become his own trademark. The rain at the beginning of the scene really tells us a sense of confusion in so deeply felt by the two characters which seem confusing and has been amazed by such a full-of-twist story.

In the end, the movie ends with redemption and humanity appear on the woodcutter’s character along with the rain that gradually stops and the sun appears as if it’s a symbol that there is still a kindness that arises in humans. It’s a philosophy about what the true means of a human being is. The rest of the backgrounds used in this film are just three: the Rashomon gate, the scene when the perpetrators and victims retell their stories, and the forest. Various kinds of memorable scenes in this film are like the choreography from one on one between Tajômaru and Takehiro, a medium segment, and various kinds of out of character from the actors and actresses.

Toshirô Mifune is Akira Kurosawa’s favorite actor. When his character as one of the most memorable yet respected characters in “Seven Samurai,” we got Toshirô Mifune as a bandit who felt scared, tried to convince us, and the police. There is a small scene when he ran down on a hill in the forest without any fear prevented him. He ran as if no one could block him the same as in “Seven Samurai” which you can look closely and a close-up from his expression there is no fear of it.

Fumio Hayasaka’s score is great and the comical one, makes each scene compelling in a few moments and sometimes, some little segment of being a silence is really needed for certain scenes. The actors and actresses also performed perfectly especially Machiko Kyô and Masayuki Mori along with Toshirô Mifune because those who dominated the most in this movie. They did various changes of characters from various points of view where in the end, they were the major focus.

“Rashomon” seems like a courtroom drama movie but it’s not about finding the truth. You’re stuck on a Kurosawa’s philosophy about human beings, who can be trusted and if there is nothing to be trusted, is this world a hell? It’s a movie that puts a lot of influences, for now, a story which feels new and original at the time and becomes a new innovation. With truly beautiful and brilliantly shot visuals, the greatest acting performance, the visual, and the score, “Rashomon” deserves to be called art along with the best film ever. In fact, it’s difficult to parallel with the today films where creative seems to be gone. “Rashomon” is a film yet more than a film.
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