Review of Rashomon (1950) by Trevor R — 09 Aug 2011

I have to admit that it took me a little while to get into this film. The final half hour really pulled me in, though. Another seminal work from Kurosawa, Rashomon explores honesty and humanity in multiple tellings of the same story through different points of view.

Many of Kurosawa's regulars are here: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki and Daisuke Kato to name a few. All put in wonderful performances, but I think that Mifune takes the cake. His portrayal of a dirty, crazy bandit is pretty freaking great.

Although one performance was just plain annoying. The main female in the film basically had one thing to do and that was cry. However, later in the film that gripe was put to rest almost immediately with a drastic change in her character.

The look of the film is beautiful as with most of Kurosawa's work. The forest and dilapidated gate settings were very cool. I'm a sucker for any Asian look, especially in film. Even though it started slow, Rashomon was able to keep my interest throughout and drive home themes of human nature, ethics, and honesty.