Rashomon

How this film uses it

All 4 accounts in Rashomon come from witnesses who bend events to protect their own honor, guilt or self-image. Kurosawa never asks you to pick out the liar. He asks you to see that every testimony is told by someone you can't fully trust. The film implies that the same is true of all storytelling.

Where to see it

The bandit Tajomaru's account of the ambush. It is the most dramatic version and the most self-flattering. The film treats it as no more and no less believable than the accounts that contradict it.

How this film uses it

Rashomon gives you 4 complete accounts of the same event. Each one makes sense on its own terms, and each one explains the samurai's death differently. None is proven false, and the film ends without choosing between them. There is no hidden answer to find. The structure itself says that human truth comes in many versions that can't be settled.

Where to see it

The courtyard trial sequences. Each new account is staged with the same confidence and craft. The film makes every witness's version equally convincing to watch.

How this film uses it

During each witness's testimony, Kurosawa shoots the events from where that witness stood. The camera takes on each point of view in turn, so every account feels equally real. That is, the camera's point of view is the tool Rashomon uses to keep you from finding safe ground.

Where to see it

The wife's account of the assault. In her version her husband looks at her with contempt before she faints. For that stretch, her version feels like the whole truth.

How this film uses it

At the ruined Rashomon gate, 3 men shelter from the rain and argue about what the testimonies say about human nature. Every account reaches you as something already in dispute. The gate scenes give you no steady place to judge from. They are a moral argument too, and you are put inside a debate with nobody in charge.

Where to see it

The gate sequences between accounts. The woodcutter, the priest and the commoner argue about human honesty. Their commentary becomes a second layer of storytelling you can't fully trust.

How this film uses it

After 4 accounts of lying and self-interest, the woodcutter decides to adopt the abandoned baby. It is the only clearly decent act in the film. It hits with full emotional force because the film has spent its whole runtime showing you how rare an act like that is. The relief is as large as the despair it lifts.

Where to see it

The woodcutter taking the baby. The rain stops, and this act of care cuts through all the pessimism the film has built up. Everything before it has earned the release.