Turner Classic Movies recently presented the classic film Rashomon, a Japanese psychological drama directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film is done in the Japanese language and has English subtitles. The word Rashomon means In the Woods which is the setting for this dynamic presentation.
A college professor of mine once used the generic Rashomon to explain the phenomenon whereby multiple witnesses of an event may relate entirely different versions of what they saw with each being a plausible explanation.
That is the premise behind the movie Rashomon. Four different versions of a murder are related, each version designed to put the storyteller in a good light. The story opens during a heavy rainstorm from which three men seek shelter. One is a priest, one a woodcutter, and the other a commoner.
The priest and the woodcutter tell the story to the commoner as they were both present at the trial of the notorious bandit, Tajomaru, who admitted the responsibility for the murder of a samurai and the rape of the samurai’s wife. Tajomaru told the court that after he tied the samurai to a tree and raped his wife, the wife asked the two men to fight a duel for the affections of the wife. Tajomaru swore that he killed the samurai in an honorable duel while the wife ran off.
The wife relates that Tajomaru ran off after raping her. Her husband, the samurai, looked at her with such loathing that she begged him to kill her. After fainting, she awoke to find the dagger in her husband’s chest.
Through the words of a medium, the samurai related that Tajomaru asked the wife to come away with him. She agreed but asked him to kill her husband first so that two men would not know of her defilement. Tajomaru was shocked at this and asked the samurai if he, Tajomaru, should kill his wife. The wife fled the scene and Tajomaru set the samurai free. The samurai then killed himself with his own dagger.
The woodcutter, who witnessed the murder, claimed that the wife goaded the two men to a duel where the samurai was killed and the wife fled in horror. Tajomaru could not catch up with the wife and left the scene after taking the samurai’s sword.
While waiting for the rainstorm to end, the three men heard a baby’s cry in the shelter. The commoner went first and grabbed a kimono and an amulet which were left with the baby. When derided for this by the woodcutter, the commoner accused the woodcutter of thievery also, by stealing the dagger from the grove.
When the priest took the baby in his arms, the woodcutter said that he had six children at home and one more would not make a difference. The priest was grateful for having his faith in humanity restored by the woodcutter’s offer.
Rashomon is a profound story with multiple lessons. The English subtitles may discourage some viewers from staying with it, but the noble ending raised my spirits. Great praise was given to this movie when it was first released. I am happy that Turner Classic Movies saw fit to show it sixty years later.
