3. Rashômon (Rashomon) (In the Woods) (1951)
Movie Info
This landmark film is a brilliant exploration of truth
and human weakness. It opens with a priest, a woodcutter, and a peasant
taking refuge from a downpour beneath a ruined gate in 12th-century
Japan. The priest and the woodcutter, each looking stricken, discuss
the trial of a notorious bandit for rape and murder. As the retelling
of the trial unfolds, the participants in the crime -- the bandit
(Toshiro Mifune), the rape victim (Machiko Kyo), and the murdered man
(Masayuki Mori) -- tell their
plausible though completely incompatible versions of the story. In
the bandit's version, he and the man wage a spirited duel after the
rape, resulting in the man's death. In the woman's testimony, she is
spurned by her husband after being raped. Hysterical with grief, she
kills him. In the man's version, speaking through the lips of a
medium, the bandit beseeches the woman after the rape to go away with
him. She insists that the bandit kill her husband first, which angers
the bandit. He spurns her and leaves. The man kills himself. Seized
with guilt, the woodcutter admits to the shocked priest and the
commoner that he too witnessed the crime. His version is equally
feasible, although his veracity is questioned when it is revealed that
he stole a dagger from the crime scene. Just as all seems bleak and
hopeless, a baby appears behind the gate. The commoner seizes the
moment and steals the child's clothes, while the woodcutter redeems
himself and humanity in the eyes of the troubled priest, by adopting
the infant. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Dec 26, 1951 WideMar 26, 2002
From Rotten Tomatoes
Film Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBn4cvHKPUc&edufilter=c7JgKsSOw4O1r_f9k5vTlw
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