Cheap Rashomon - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô) (Akira Kurosawa) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rashomon - Criterion Collection

Certainly somewhat existential and post modern in its central conceit, this exceptionally absorbing drama still resonates with a timely and provocative tale of the illusive nature of so-called Truth.

Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the seemingly paradoxical complexities of human nature as four people -- all witnesses to one degree or another -- recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife. Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in this eloquent masterwork that secured his international stardom.

With a restored image and sound, this classic revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to a global audience. Loaded with extras, including a video introduction by Robert Altman and a brilliant commentary by Japanese film historian Donald Richie. Excerpts are also included from "The World of Kazuo Miyagawa," a documentary about Rashomon's incredible cinematographer.

Even in the pantheon of our greatest filmmakers, Kurosawa stands apart as an intellectual and an artist. His best films have a shimmering beauty and a visceral impact while also engaging the mind. A rare feat. This 1950 masterpiece is an essential element of any serious digital library.

The Rashomon effect.
Kurosawa meets World; World loves Kurosawa. *Rashomon*, the director's first major picture to find wide release, is typically brilliant and innovative. If its central conceit -- 4 different perspectives on 1 incident -- doesn't seem all that new, well, it WAS new in 1950. People were blown away by this, having never seen anything like it before (the movie won all sorts of prizes and Oscars). This grim parable is set in 11th century feudal Japan, involving the rape of a woman and the murder of her husband in an empty grove in a forest. The rape and murder is told and re-told, with wildly varying details, by the principals -- the Bandit, the Woman, and her dead Husband's Spirit -- as well as by an ancillary witness, The Woodcutter, who stumbles upon the scene after the fact. As the commentator on this Criterion edition says, all the stories are true and none of them are true. The theme of the movie is the relativism of memory, incident, and experience. (Alain Resnais must have been heavily influenced by this particular film.) As justly famous as *Rashomon* is, I still feel that it's not quite a masterpiece, and certainly not up to Kurosawa's later standards: first of all, he has the actors, especially the Bandit and the Woman overact terribly . . . but in extenuation of the performances, it must be said that this style of acting was apparently a tradition in Japanese cinema. Mifune as the Bandit suffers the most -- Kurosawa has the poor guy behave like a rabid gibbon. (One half-expects him to climb a tree.) Secondly, the torrential downpour during the "framing" segments wherein the secondary characters are telling the story of the murder and rape is way over-the-top. It looks like the spray of several giant firehoses pointed skyward off-camera -- which is exactly what it is. Finally, there are too many pauses in the film, too much stretching-out time between action, which might make some viewers itchy from boredom. (Not much excuse for this, considering the tightness of the story's ingenious construction.) Well, obviously I'm picking nits. Though I feel *Rashomon* doesn't quite equal the director's later masterpieces (*Ikiru*, *Seven Samurai*, *The Hidden Fortress*, etc. etc. etc. for the next couple decades), this is still a massively influential movie -- a GREAT movie, an absolute necessity for Kurosawa devotees. By the way, it was re-made in America several years later: called *The Outrage*, it featured Paul Newman, absurdly made-up as a Mexican, in the Bandit role. [The best features on Criterion's DVD are the booklets inside: the complete short stories on which Kurosawa based his film. Outstanding.]

Classic stuff
A man travelling with his wife in feudal Japan is murdered by a bandit... or is he? As the main protagonists - the bandit, the wife, a passer-by and (I kid you not) the man himself - tell their versions of events, a series of contradictions emerge. Who, if anyone, is telling the truth?
Rashomon's Byzantine plot structure was unique at the time, and still feels fresh over half a century down the line. Presenting no easy answers (there is reason to doubt the motives, and thus the stories, of all of those involved), it leaves the audience to make up their own minds about who to trust. Fans of latterday head-spinning efforts such as The Usual Suspects and Memento will find plenty to get their teeth into here.
It all looks gorgeous, to boot (Kazuo Miyagawa's cinematography is done justice by an excellent DVD transfer here), and the performances - especially Toshiro Mifune, as the bandit Tajomaru, cackling hysterically and pausing mid-fight to swat mosquitoes on his neck - are superb. If I've got one gripe, it's the slightly pat "redemptive" ending, but that's a minor fault at best.
Otherwise, Rashomon is downright essential. It's too easy to get all rose-tinted when trying to assess a long-established "classic", but this is one that's more than stood the test of time.