Some of your patience will be needed simply because this film was made for a specific time and specific viewing audience who were comfortable with many elements and behaviors presented in the story. The overacting, stereotypical characters, and general presentation are likely suited to the expectations of a 1950’s Japanese audience.
Though the story does rely on dialogue, Rashomon plays a lot like a silent movie, and Kurosawa has indicated this was his intent. The interesting outdoor testimony scenes provide nice separators for the multiple presentations of the crimes. I kept imagining the actors were in a corner of the famous Ryoanji rock garden in Kyoto (minus the bigger rocks) during the scenes where each character is attempting to tell the story in a way that presents themselves in a more favorable light.
The music in Rashomon is often heavy handed and one of the more obtrusive and displeasing elements for me, especially the odd bastardized version of Ravel’s Bolero that jarringly pops up in the film. But it does sort of lend a silent movie effect, as if someone was down in the orchestra pit banging away on an old dilapidated piano. The music is not piano music and not as crude as I am portraying, but it often seemed to have a life of its own, as if it was separate from the movie in many places.
There are no really admirable or genuinely sympathetic lead characters in Rashomon, so it is a bit of a mental ordeal to watch this intentionally unpleasant story shared over and over again in its different incarnations.
Toshiro Mifune's bandit is portrayed almost
as a hero in this version of the story.
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Toshiro Mifune is fascinating as always, though the over-the-top psychotic laughter from him and Machiko Kyo later in the film is very annoying. The laughter served its purpose of forcing the point that these characters are not intended to be worthy of the audience's compassion, but the laughter is far too excessive and doesn't play well today.
There are a lot of issues to consider in the presentation of Rashomon, and it is at the very least a thought provoking film. It is a film that does not wrap things up with a definitive answer to the questions posed. It leaves the viewer to ponder and consider our sometimes tenuous perception of truth and reality.
If this review at first sounds like I was not very fond of Rashomon, I should clarify that I did not really dislike the film. I learned some things from studying Rashomon. Perhaps much of what I learned was revealed in the DVD bonus features, especially the subtitled interviews from part of the NHK documentary The World of Kazuo Miyagawa with Kurosawa and cinematographer Miyagawa. I watched the NHK supplied material before viewing Rashomon. I think it was valuable and I recommend watching the bonus features first with Rashomon. It gave me a few good things to look for in the movie.
If you enjoy studying movies and are interested in significant films that are credited with changing the face of cinema around the world, then you may very much enjoy and appreciate this classic film. If you are looking for a fun and easy to watch Japanese movie, you might want to pass on Rashomon.
(not rated by MPAA)
