Having only a few hobbies I find it very hard to pick subjects to write about on here, but yet again I am going to turn to my trusty best friend – cinema. Recently, after a couple of weeks of wanting, and then impulsively thinking “fuck it – go mental with the overdraft” I bought Akira Kurosawa’s movie – Rashomon. Although, not the most entertaining movie I’ve ever watched, but how can anything once you’ve seen the cinematic classic; War of the Worlds – whoever thought Tom Cruise depicting a docker was believable needs their back up against the wall.
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese movie set in the 12th century, where a woman is raped and her husband murdered. We hear several accounts of the events, including that of the dead husband, albeit through a spiritualist. All the different accounts contradicting one another, and thus throwing up the question of whether there is any truth in such a callous society where a man is driven to rape, and maybe murder.
Despite being at odds with the philosophy of the movie I still recognise the hugely influential story telling narrative of the movie. The movie shows every suspect and witness turning up, at what seems an elder’s court, and describe what they saw, every story contradicting the other. With every tale comes another twist and turn, but you never know whether this twists in the plot are true or not because they’re from the perspective of a human trying to clear their name in front of the judiciary.
The film has obviously influenced several directors throughout history, most popularly and well known is the 1996 movie – The Usual Suspects, yet that does not give the story the justice it deserves. Something I hope I might be able to do, as if in the end I do enrol for Film Studies as an extra subject in second year and have to make a short movie I would definitely look at doing a contemporary take on Rashomon, with a different philosophy.
The film is definitely worth checking out, and hopefully in the future I will be able to afford the extraordinarily priced Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Yojimbo, all Akira Kurosawa movies. Maybe I’d be able to buy them if I stopped going watching Inglourious Basterds over and over again – may go for a third time when my brothers go to Leeds Festival and a forth when my real brother arrives home from Sweden. Oh, on the note of Inglourious Basterds, I’ve picked my brains and thought of the perfect replacement for Eli Roth – Eric Bana. He was born to kill…in movies.
If anybody wishes to borrow Rashomon ask me. My thirst for new films has continued this week as I’ve purchased Dark Habis (Pedro Almodovar), Clockers (Spike Lee) and Hana-Bi (Takeshi Kitano), and Marcus Barnett, if you are reading: I will buy Do the Right Thing for £2 – Deal or No Deal?
That’s a Bingo
