Analysis Of Filming Techniques And Themes In Rashomon By Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa’s well renowned film Rashomon was initially released in Japan in the Fall of 1950. It was not until about a year later when it began screening in different countries across the globe at film festivals and making its box office debut in the United States in the winter of 1951. Rashomon received recognition from many critics at the time and ended up winning awards from BAFTA, Blue Ribbon and even received a nomination for an Oscar. The film’s story was not actually originally written as a motion picture, in fact, Rashomon’s main story was adapted from the Japanese short story titled “In a grove” which was written and published by author Ryūnosuke Akutugawa about 30 years prior in 1922. Rashomon released during the Golden age of Japanese film, it is often referred to as one of the best films to be released in this era. “Japanese golden age of cinema is generally referred to have taken place from the years 1945 to 1965,” but most golden age films came out of the 1950s. In the 1950s, many of Japan’s most well-known and critically acclaimed films such as Toho’s classic monster movies like Godzilla and Rodan as well as Hiroshi Inigaki’s Samurai film series. When Rashomon was released originally in Japan on August 24, 1950, the Japanese critics didn’t like the film. Even though it won two awards, one for Best screen play and another for best actress.
The Japanese critics viewed that the movie didn’t represent the movie industry and even the government had disagreed with Kurosawa’s work, Kurosawa also criticized them by saying “Japanese think too little of our own things”. Once the film got its English subtitles and dub, it was released in the United States on December 26th, 1951. And was viewed as critical success in the overseas market, and even won more awards from the Venice Film Festival and in the United States. One of those awards being Best Director and best foreign film. It was also considered for Academy Awards in multiple categories. Once the international market saw the movie, they were able see more of Kurosawa’s films and introduced them to his different story telling and filming techniques, which left critics astonished and in awe. During multiple interviews Kurosawa was asked for his biggest inspiration during the production of Rashomon, his answer were films from the silent era. “I like silent pictures and always have. They are often so much more beautiful than sound pictures are. Perhaps they have to be. At any rate, I wanted to restore some of this beauty. I thought of it, I remember, this way: one of the techniques of modern painting is simplification, I must therefore simplify this film. ” During the same interview Kurosawa talked about an almost disastrous mistake almost made during the editing process which could have destroyed the film. “We had our share of troubles in making the picture. After one reel was edited there was a studio fire, and another one during dubbing. I'm not happy when I think back to those times. ” Rashomon was made under the studio known as Daiei. In the beginning the studio was very hesitant to fund the project because it seemed, “too unconventional” and they “feared that it would be too difficult for audiences to understand. ” When Rashomon was entered into an international film festival entitled Venice Film Festive of 1951, it was met with a very positive reaction. Surprisingly Daiei, the studio, didn’t want to originally permit the film to be submitted for competition. Kurosawa’s visionary approach with this movie led to massive cinematic and cultural influence.
One key point to the reign of Kurosawa’s impact is that he utilized the concept of a flashback before anyone else had done that in the film world. As much as this movie has affected the film world there is an even more unique connection of Rashomon and the current Japanese culture. Its name has become a sort of parlance to showcase the general conceptions of the reality of truth, subjectivity of memory, and the unreliability of our minds. When the Japanese reference this, it is most referred to in law and is called The Rashomon effect. Rashomon was a groundbreaking film when it was released and is still being debated to this day, and its style is used throughout the world of cinema. Rashomon created the Rashomon Effect which is when there is an event with contradictory interpretations by multiple people, this effect can be seen throughout TV and movies. Rashomon mixes many styles of genres such as Crime, Drama, Mystery, Jidaigeki, and what looks like Noir with its use of shadows and lighting. They also break some of these genre conventions throughout the film. However, the films itself has references to Post-War Japan, incidents, places, and people are reflected on Japan’s military defeat and American occupation. With the use of many different genres in Rashomon, the most notable one is Drama. Rashomon, in being told in a 'traditional' style, attempts to both break and rethink its very own conventions, and makes use of Jidaigeki to make, and after that break, their previously established inclinations on how the characters should act and how it should to be filmed. Rashomon could be a period drama by following conventions of a standard drama and then break away from the over the course of the film, like its characters, setting, and major scenes. Kurosawa expertly using camerawork and design helps make this film unique in its ability in storytelling. For the initial first half of the film, Rashomon plays out like a regular Jidaigeki with every character telling their own story to the court to prove that they are innocent, which shows how each character is faithful to their character archetype. Kurosawa even described the script as to show how human beings are unable to be honest about themselves with themselves.
Another example of characters not following their archetype is the fight scene. In Jidaigeki, fight scenes are usually bloodless deaths with exaggerated movements. But in Rashomon there are many fight scenes and each one of them are different, but the fist fight starts off like any ordinary “heroic or honorable” fight. Then it slower gets sloppier and degrades into a pathetic and laughable dual where the samurai and Tajomaru are just running around, falling over, tripping over themselves, and barely able to even clash swords. But in the end the samurai still dies. Jidaigeki also has a clear moral good and evil with the characters, but Kurosawa blurs the line of good and evil making the audience guess who really is good or bad. Jidaigekis hero is usually a clean, perfect, and moral man while villains are the opposite of this. The samurai at the beginning is portrayed as the hero but is later shattered during the woodcutter’s story when you see how cruel and abusive, he is to his wife. Then there is Tajomaru who we think is a dirty bandit but is later seen has being noble and honorable in every story. Then there is the samurai’s wife, she starts off looking and acting like a goddess. But her hair and clothes get more disordered and dirtier, just like her personality and morals. There is also camera work and technique that Jidaigeki uses, and that Kurisawa breaks throughout the film. The act of looking at the sun hold many symbolic purposes, it breaks the convections of Jidaigeki, and was one of the taboos of cinematography as Kurisawa said. Rashomon uses its camerawork and narration to its full effect to tell a story. “The main feature evident in the time series of Rashomon is the shift to a slower cutting rate after the end of the bandit’s testimony. ” This shows how the pace changes throughout every testimonial, and even shows how the editing slows down over the course of the film. Then there is the acting of the actors and the camerawork. “But when Rashomon’s actors look directly at the camera and tell contradictory narratives — and even worse when the camera’s apparently objective view records different happenings — it forces upon the viewer, narratively and thematically, a self-conscious awareness of his or her own interpretive activity. ” Small things like this add to the mystery of the death, for the audience is unable to figure out the truth. Cinematically, framing is one of the key features of Kurosawa’s films and is used in Rashomon in order to establish primitivity of his characters. Kurosawa is a painter with his shots, he tries to control every aspect of the shot as though it were a painting resulting in powerful and well-developed images. This is used effectively throughout many Kurosawa’s films and Rashomon is no different. One of the film’s central themes is that there is a thin line between humanity and animals. Tajomaru is used throughout the film to showcase this thin line as a man who boards on insanity and moves tact of an animal. During his first testimony, a scene captures Tajomaru stalking the two victims through the forest. One shot displays Tajomaru peering down upon them through the cover of the woods. He is framed perfectly by the leaves and branches, while his placement above gives him the look of a hunter following his prey. This is a powerful scene from Kurosawa and an early establisher of the primitive side of the civilized man. While Kurosawa was the creator of the narrative, his camera work is the most integral part to telling his stories. His use of photograph like scenes are a powerful source of storytelling as well as a key factor in all of Kurosawa’s films.
Often in films, the ideas and images are sometimes a direct representation of the directors’ background and key ideals. As a screenwriter and director, Kurosawa’s influences are prevalent throughout the film. From his use of formal film elements like framing and camera movement to its unique use of storytelling. Rashomon shows us all the skills that make Kurosawa a great director and an auteur. With the use of Kazuo Miyagawa use of cinematography, he makes every frame come to life with movement. And combined with the story, it captures the raw emotion of the line between man and animal. Rashomon is a harrowing tale that speaks directly to the nature of humankind. “By exploring one of the most atrocious acts a human can commit and placing the film in the ravaged village of Rashomon, which has been plagued by war, natural disasters, and almost every sorrow you can think of, we can discover the true nature of humanity. ” When humans are placed in a situation of extreme distress will their morality hold up? Kurosawa uses this backdrop in order to create a skeptical view of humanity that has few redeeming moments save the last scene of the movie. “The film attacks the idea of human sanctity by addressing the concept of truth, a value that humans hold in high esteem. ” The story of Rashomon would have us believe because human being only tells the truth when it best serves them and lie if the truth shows anything detrimental to their character. Kurosawa shows this skeptical view of morality by filming at a time when gross human behavior has become the norm, revolving the plot around the immoral actions of its characters, and exploring the truthfulness of these characters. The film also depicts our ability to abandon our previous notion of morality through the actions of its characters. The most prominent example is that of the bandit Tajomaru. He’s notorious throughout the land for the deeds he’s done and is a character with no morals and little regard for his actions. Tajomaru seems to take joy in doing harm to others, in the story he murders a man (according to his account and the woodcutters) and rapes a woman. In his accounting of the story is almost seems proud of his actions, gloating about how he was able to capture and kill the man and have his way with the woman, he also lied to the court. “Tajomaru seems to be the embodiment of immorality and the time period they are living in. ” In the face of a harsh and cold reality, people forget about the ideals we believe to be an integral part of humanity. During the opening sequence the commoner is completely unphased by hearing that there has been a murder saying “So what? On top of the gate, you’ll find at least 5 or 6 unclaimed bodies”. Then the priest responds by agreeing and recounting the many atrocities that he has seen, including “bandits descending on us every night” and “men getting killed like insects”. This dark and rather negative depiction of society and allows Kurosawa to establish his idea of “moral relativism. ” Our idea of morality is only subjective to the situation we are in. “What we once thought was the standard can easily be changed when we circumstance have gone array. ” A huge part of Japanese culture is the history of the Samurai culture.
One thing specifically that the culture had put an emphasis on was the honorable way to live life, even up to the inevitable death. There is a practice in Samurai culture called Seppuku which is when a samurai would voluntarily die with honor rather than fall to the hands of an enemy. It was common for a warrior to rather perform Seppuku, which was highly honorable in this era, than to be finished off by the person he was battling. Rashomon is set in the eleventh century of Japan, which Kurosawa uses to help showcase some extremities of human behavior. One of the extremities that the audience gets to witness is in one story when the Samurai falls to the Bandit, and instead of having a dishonorable death the Samurai decides to stand up and perform Seppuku in the background. Rashomon is one of the only international films that have impacted the world in so many ways and is still discussed and taught to this day. This film alone was able to put Akira Kurosawas name in history as one of the most influential and revolutionary screenwriters and directors in international history. Rashomon will be one of the many films that will stand the test of time and be talked about in film and media history forever.
