#52 Rashômon - come to your own conclusions cause we won't tell you the truth

1950. dir. Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura. Japanese with subtitles.

Seen it before? No.

The story itself is interesting. A body is found in a field near a straw hat belonging to a woman and an overall suspicious circumstance. Four narrators (one who comes to a psychic as a spirit) tell the story to a priest. All accounts have two things in common, a woman being taken advantage of and a man's death...but how it all happened is up to the viewer to decide because there is no clear conclusion.

I found the general theme to be that all the characters showed weaknesses. In other words they were human. I think that is why this movie is on the list. The woman might not have been strong enough to leave her husband. The husband might not have been strong enough to deal with a 'damaged' woman. The bandit might not have been strong enough to leave the man alive. The fourth story teller might not have been strong enough to resist temptation and become a thief.

I probably won't see it again but I don't discount that it was probably a really terrific movie when it came out in 1950.
Most annoying character: the bandit...watch it and you'll hear why.

2/21/2010 - I meant to write this earlier but I was too much into finishing these posts that I forgot...while watching this film all I kept hearing was "Like Kurosawa I make mad films, 'kay I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a samurai!" thank you VERY much Barenaked Ladies!

#52 Rashômon: I don't mind a lie if it's interesting.

1950. dir. Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura. Japanese with subtitles.

Seen it before? No.

A woman has been raped, and a samurai has been stabbed to death. What exactly happened, and who was responsible? You're not going to find out, because there are four conflicting accounts of the incident from four unreliable narrators:

• The bandit (Toshirô Mifune) who is insane and laughs a lot,
• The woman (Machiko Kyô), who is also sort of nuts,
• The samurai (Masayuki Mori), who narrates his account from beyond the grave via a medium, and
• Some guy (Takashi Shimura), who was hiding in the bushes.

I liked the idea of this movie. As for the actual execution of it, I don't know. I don't think the characters were well-defined enough, and all of the performances were over the top. Overall... meh. Hasn't aged well.

Position on the list: 86
Sitcoms that based an episode on this movie: Perfect Strangers, Diff'rent Strokes, Frasier, M*A*S*H, Coupling, Happy Days, Mama's Family, and I'm sure countless others