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Rashomon (DVD)

Akira Kurosawa (Director), Machiko Kya (Actor), Fumiko Honma (Actor) Format: DVD

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Genre	Drama
Format	DVD
Contributor	Toshira Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Kata, Akira Kurosawa, Kichijiro Ueda, Masayuki Mori, Minoru Chiaki, Machiko Kya, Fumiko Honma See more
Language	Japanese
Runtime	1 hour and 25 minutes

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Product description

In ancient Japan, a woman is raped and her husband killed. Rashomon is played out by giving us four stories - with every story revealing different points of view. The question remains - just which version is the truth?

Product details

Language ‏ : ‎ Japanese

Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 18 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm; 83 Grams

Director ‏ : ‎ Akira Kurosawa

Media Format ‏ : ‎ DVD

Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 25 minutes

Release date ‏ : ‎ 8 November 2006

Actors ‏ : ‎ Machiko Kya, Fumiko Honma, Masayuki Mori, Kichijiro Ueda, Daisuke Kata

Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English

Language ‏ : ‎ Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)

Studio ‏ : ‎ Madman

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009Q6CA84

Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: 7,138 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

5,471 in Movies (Movies & TV)

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ゆうくん
人間も歴史も真実は藪の中、客観的立場だけが信憑性を補完する
Reviewed in Japan on 12 February 2019
Verified Purchase
本作の面白さは既に伝説級で、何度観ても画面にかぶり付いてしまう日本映画の傑作。

黒澤作品の中でも異色中の異色作だが、世界的にも驚愕の映画だったらしく、ベネツィア国際映画祭で初めて日本作品が金獅子賞を受賞した。翌年アカデミー賞名誉賞も獲得し、11作目にして初めて黒澤明の名が世界に轟いた瞬間だ。

全ての人類史に喧嘩を売るが如き野心的なテーマ、モノクロながら自然光を活かした鮮烈な画面と躍動的かつ溜めもあるカメラワーク、同じ役柄を全く異なる性格で４回演じる達者な役者達、映画用の格好良い殺陣ではなく素人同士の敢えてみっともない決闘を撮るセンス、そして主役は事件当事者達ではなく陪審員的な傍観者、何れもが当時の映画のセオリーを無視していたのだろう。

特に四者四様の自画自賛ストーリーこそ鍵だ。大映と黒澤の制作意図は人間のエゴイズムを嘲笑的に暴くだけだったかも知れないが、欧米映画関係者が日本作品として観た視点は全く違った筈だ。
それは｢歴史は勝者によって記される｣の太古からの欺瞞に挑戦する、敗者日本の未曾有の大胆な試みに映ったからだ。

原作通り｢歴史の真実は常に藪の中｣を、日本が撮ったのだから同じ敗者のイタリアのベネツィアで化学反応を起こした事はある意味で必然だったと言える。
それが偶然の産物だったのは大映は映画祭への出品を辞退したのに、イタリア映画制作会社の社長が惚れ込んで無理矢理出品したからだ。だからグランプリ授賞式に日本人が誰も出席しない珍事が起きたし、黒澤も授賞を知らなかった。
つまり大映も黒澤も、日本ですらヒットしなかった作品で世界に勝負する気はさらさら無く、ましてや世界的には黒澤は未だ無名なのに世界に訴える大それた作品とは思っていなかった。
が、人間と歴史への高尚なアンチテーゼに世界が勝手に盛り上がったのだ。
黒澤の類い稀な映像表現が有ってこその話だが、現実とは何と面白いのだろうと一人合点している。

また、芥川龍之介等の日本文壇が世界に対しても普遍的に通用するメッセージを書き遺してくれた偉業にも感謝したくなる。邦画を世界に知らしめた歴史的作品を丁寧にリマスターしてくれた角川映画、他二団体の英断にも感謝したい。
観る人の立場や主観でこれほど印象の違う作品は恐らく他に類をみない。無理矢理、観客も陪審員に引きずり込むとは何とも罪深い異色の傑作だ。
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Gazza
Rashomon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2018
Verified Purchase
One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. When I first saw it, sitting there reading the subtitles, I thought it would be too taxing and simply boring. But you quickly get into this classic of Japanese cinema as we watch different versions of a story laid out before us, each one seemingly as true as the other.

It is one of my all time top movies. Absolutely fascinating and definitely worth watching numerous times.

I hope you find my review helpful
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Gazza

Rashomon
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2018
One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. When I first saw it, sitting there reading the subtitles, I thought it would be too taxing and simply boring. But you quickly get into this classic of Japanese cinema as we watch different versions of a story laid out before us, each one seemingly as true as the other.

It is one of my all time top movies. Absolutely fascinating and definitely worth watching numerous times.

I hope you find my review helpful
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16 people found this helpful
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Malarchy
Thought Provoking Classic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2013
Verified Purchase
Rashomon is a groundbreaking 1950 film by the legendary Akira Kurosawa and starring the peerless Toshiro Mifune relatively early in his career. It is largely based on the short story In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. What makes Rashomon so innovative is the explicit and repeated use of the unreliable narrator concept. The plot features the telling of the same story from four different perspectives, each perspective imposing the storyteller's own personality and prejudices onto the action.

As Rashomon is a Kurosawa film, it is expertly directed. The pacing of the film is superb. Rashomon has quite limited periods of action but there is seemingly no let-up in the atmosphere. As a black and white film with subtitles for those without sufficient Japanese, it has a somewhat arty feel to it. Rashomon is thought provoking rather than exciting.

Rashomon stars Toshiro Mifune and he is absolutely excellent. He is clearly the class act on screen, able to move his performance with great subtlety to express the different views the story is told from. At times he is the brash and super confident bandit Tajomaru. From the perspectives that see the dangerous bandit as the belligerant, Mifune is imposing and strong, his facial expressions convey his dominance of the environment he inhabits. From other perspectives, Mifune is afflicted by nerves, the very same outcomes happen almost despite Tajomaru rather than because of him.

It is that distinction of perspective that makes Rashomon so cherished. Intriguingly each of the characters plays up their own negative role in the action rather than portraying themselves as heroic. Tajomaru sees himself as a brutal killer when others see him more comedic or even a victim of circumstances. The relationship between the couple in the woods is entirely dependent on the perspective being told from. From Machiko's perspective she is wronged by her partner seeing dishonour in her. From Mayusaki's perspective he is scorned by the woman he loves.

None of the narratives are reliable. There is no real way for the viewer to decide which perspective is true. It is a fascinating study to watch, to be exposed so bluntly to egoistic way each of us understands the actions of others.

Often great film is enhanced by tremendous music. This is not true of Rashomon. Fumio Hayasaka's score is not excellent. The sligtly disjointed tones of the majority of the film are somewhat ruined by an inappropriate use of Ravel's Bolero. Bolero really does not fit Rashomon, it was a bad choice by Kurosawa to insist on it.

There are other aspects of the experience though that are tremendous, in particular the lighting. The oppressive rain experienced by the three characters at the Kyoto city gate is beautifully lit. The various woodland scenes also work very well with incredible use of sunlight.

What makes Rashomon something special is the unreliability of each of the narrators. It is the subjectivity of perception explored so ruthlessly that makes it so intriguing. None of the narrators is willfully unreliable, the tale each tells seems genuinely theirs. These are not narrators manipulating the viewer deliberately and that makes them far more engaging.

The scope and feel of Rashomon does not itself necessarily suit film brilliantly. Kurosawa makes it work thanks to his own genious and the presence of Mifune. They turn a concept into something compelling. Still, Rashomon seems more suited to being a stage performance, it just does not have the scope of Kurosawa's greatest films, tales like Seven Samurai , Yojimbo , or Hidden Fortress . Rashomon is not an epic, it is a thought provoking piece that sets and then exceeds expectations.

The DVD Extras are ok. The Extras mainly offers a discussion among several of those who worked on the 1950 film. It is a somewhat technical discussion about how certain effects were created. The special edition includes a booklet with a terrific extract from The Emperor and the Wolf by Stuart Galbraith as well as text from the novellas Rashomon and In A Grove. Galbraith's history of the film and his own analysis are high quality and offers a fascinating 20 page insight.

Rashomon is a very good film, not the greatest of Kurosawa's unequalled career but still fascinating. The concept is thought provoking and can sit with a viewer for a long time afterwards. The unreliable narrator has a very long tradition but to see that unreliability come about through subjective egoism rather than as a deliberate act is a terrific concept.
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Keith M
Innovative, Perceptive And Profound
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 December 2013
Verified Purchase
Although particularly notable as being the Kurosawa film that broke the Japanese director in the 'west', and (rightly) cited as a ground-breaking piece of cinema, 1950's Rashomon is a film (I have found) whose qualities gradually 'crept up on me'. Of course, its sensorial appeal is pretty much immediate, with its (for its time) innovative three-point flashback narrative, Kazuo Miyagawa's stunning cinematography (in particular the depiction of light through forests and clouds) and Fumio Hayasaka's mesmerising soundtrack tracking Rashomon's storyline almost to the second. However, its thematic and symbolic significance is more subtle (not to say deliberately opaque), as Kurosawa's film searches for 'the truth' in humanity (whilst along the way touching on elements of fate, chance, memory, honour, jealousy and love (or perhaps lust)).

In one of the most stunning openings in cinema (Kurosawa's influence on Leone seems obvious here), as rain and wind lashes down on the dilapidated Kyoto city gate (a 'hell on earth'), the great Takashi Shimura's woodcutter and Minoru Chiaki's priest stare into nowhere, the woodcutter sighing, 'I don't understand. I just don't understand' (a metaphor for much audience reaction, no doubt!). What follows are (at least) three versions of the truth as Masayuki Mori's travelling samurai and wife (Machiko Kyo) encounter 'notorious' bandit Toshiro Mifune's Tajamuro, leaving the samurai dead. Is it a simple case of 'bandit rape and murder' or is there a 'ritual murder' or even suicide involved? Kurosawa leaves it for us to decide, as the three (the deceased samurai via a medium, no less) give their accounts of events (in court) straight to camera. Throughout, in order to emphasise the 'differing POV' theme, Miyagawa's camera constantly (and cleverly) shifts between 'over the shoulder' shots from each of the three protagonists.

Acting-wise, given the film's cultural milieu these are stylised performances, owing much to the preceding silent film era. Mifune presages his Seven Samurai turn as Kikuchiyo, here as animated (hysterical even) bandit, in a performance of great infectiousness - a dreamer and liar who lives on base instinct certainly, more a petty criminal than cruel murderer, however. Kyo is equally impressive (insecure, desperate, fearful) as the dishonoured wife - either a brazen hussy or a devoted, compromised spouse (depending on your POV), whilst Mori is also good as the stoic cuckold. Shimura is (of course) superb as the priest's co-starer in a (relatively) peripheral role (albeit he is key to the film's denouement).

By the film's conclusion, at which woodcutter and priest achieve some degree of 'redemption', we are left with the strong suspicion that Kurosawa's (almost mythological) characters are mere ciphers for the failings of humanity, moulding the truth to suit their own (nefarious) purposes (base desire, social honour, reputation, etc). Whilst (for me) Rashomon does not quite convey the feel for humanity of Ikiru or the character development (or, of course, pyrotechnics) of Seven Samurai, it makes up for this via its subtle perception, evocative symbolism and technical innovation. And just to reiterate, it is a film (for me at least) whose power (and reputation) grows with each repeat viewing.
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Beetleypete
Forget the gripes.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2013
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There are lots of reviews here from viewers who obviously expected to see a modern style sword-fest along the lines of Hero. Others complain that the story setup has been seen many times in modern films. This is the original though, and surely must be given credit for that?

From the huge catalogue of Mr. Kurosawa. This is an earlier work, from 1950, and was awarded an Oscar two years later. Filmed in black and white, and starring Kurosawa's frequent collaborator, Toshiro Mifune, this is set in the 11th Century, at a time of both plague, and Civil War. Today, the story seems simple, dealing with a rape and murder, and three alternative views of the event, seen in flashback, as told by different characters.

At the time of this film's release, such a plot construction was unknown, and it received immense critical acclaim. Most stories of this nature filmed since, certainly owe their origins to this startling original. With twists and turns, tension, action, and brilliant direction at all times, this film is rightly considered for inclusion in the `Masters of Cinema' DVD series.
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