Rashomon
April 4th, 2005
screen
I wasn’t prepared to have my mind blown away. Neither the story nor the plot was the key but the entire premise of the narration which was this: an inflated sense of self importance makes everyone liars, whether the lie is for good or to cover up the bad; that barbaric selfishness makes them all murderer; that in the end kindness, regardless of motives brings hope. The brilliant masterpiece is having the audience as the witness, to beguile the audience into judging the four accounts, and the audience finally returns to the start of the show saying the same thing the woodcutter said: “I just don’t understand.” The point of the whole movie is not to try to tie together the accounts to depict the actual events because the exercise is impossible: it’s like the endless mirror in a fun house.
