This is a dark film adapted from that brilliant story "In a Grove". This is a film about...you guessed it: the dark ambiguity of human nature. So after a first viewing for modern audiences, there is bound to be that question: What the hell did I just see?
The performances are the simply frightening. Mifune acts out the horrific candor of his bandit character, making us question how twisted a person can really be. Then there's the lady, frightening how she "might" be capable of demonstrating a polar opposite that is also evil. The guy is really actor Mifune's opposite, with an acting style that is quiet and effective in suggestion. Nobody knows what he's really thinking(modern audiences are smart enough to be skeptical regarding that psychic). The woodcutter is the big surprise of this movie. Takashi Shimura is first innocent, later just downright weak and cowardly. The monk and that third person at Rashomon gate play off each other well as polar opposites, optimism vs. cynicism.
Kurosawa's direction is quite simple, I think. He simply establishes settings and builds atmosphere. He allows the story to tell itself in a fluid way, and does everything he can to get the effect he wants(he doused the entire district water supply with black ink so the rain can be captured on camera). Kazuo Miyagawa simply goes gung-ho with the camera. He's got the camera shooting straight into the sun for the first time in film history. He uses lots and lots of dollys so the camera can move the way he wants it to. The guy's more of a perfectionist than Kurosawa himself...
The ending is something...after all that darkness Kurosawa dares to throw an optimistic ending at us. Most films like this ends in tragedy, but not this one. This one ends...well does it properly end? Not really. I swear this is the most challenging optimistic ending I have ever seen. I eventually understood why I was so challenged by such a ending. It was because by the time I got to the end I didn't believe these people could be capable of truth and goodness anymore. This film though challenges by ending with a "but". All depends now on the viewer: Do you believe that humanity is forever stuck in a dark muddle, or do you believe in a goodness that can prevail?
I'm trying...I'm trying real hard to keep hope...(borrowed from Samuel L. Jackson's famous line in Pulp Fiction, with a twist)
The performances are the simply frightening. Mifune acts out the horrific candor of his bandit character, making us question how twisted a person can really be. Then there's the lady, frightening how she "might" be capable of demonstrating a polar opposite that is also evil. The guy is really actor Mifune's opposite, with an acting style that is quiet and effective in suggestion. Nobody knows what he's really thinking(modern audiences are smart enough to be skeptical regarding that psychic). The woodcutter is the big surprise of this movie. Takashi Shimura is first innocent, later just downright weak and cowardly. The monk and that third person at Rashomon gate play off each other well as polar opposites, optimism vs. cynicism.
Kurosawa's direction is quite simple, I think. He simply establishes settings and builds atmosphere. He allows the story to tell itself in a fluid way, and does everything he can to get the effect he wants(he doused the entire district water supply with black ink so the rain can be captured on camera). Kazuo Miyagawa simply goes gung-ho with the camera. He's got the camera shooting straight into the sun for the first time in film history. He uses lots and lots of dollys so the camera can move the way he wants it to. The guy's more of a perfectionist than Kurosawa himself...
The ending is something...after all that darkness Kurosawa dares to throw an optimistic ending at us. Most films like this ends in tragedy, but not this one. This one ends...well does it properly end? Not really. I swear this is the most challenging optimistic ending I have ever seen. I eventually understood why I was so challenged by such a ending. It was because by the time I got to the end I didn't believe these people could be capable of truth and goodness anymore. This film though challenges by ending with a "but". All depends now on the viewer: Do you believe that humanity is forever stuck in a dark muddle, or do you believe in a goodness that can prevail?
I'm trying...I'm trying real hard to keep hope...(borrowed from Samuel L. Jackson's famous line in Pulp Fiction, with a twist)
Top Box Office
- 1.$70.2M
- 2.$35.8M
- 3.$23.9M
- 4.$3.2M
- 5.$3.0M
- 6.$2.8M
- 7.$2.3M
- 8.$2.2M
- 9.$2.2M
- 10.$1.2M