What Makes This Movie Great? -- Episode 5: RASHOMON
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- čas přidán 21. 11. 2019
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SPOILERS within. Among the most famous movies ever, "Rashomon" is still not an easy movie to watch. It doesn't have a typical Hollywood plot structure, for example.
But I'm here to help you. I'll show you some ways to watch the movie. I'll explain why it shows us four different stories from the same event, leading to the now-famous Rashomon Effect. This video will offer a way to watch the movie profitably.
This is Episode 5 in my series "What Makes This Movie Great?"
See joshmatthews.org for more great movie criticism. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
This is one of the greatest movie ever made, which inspired greats like Robert Altman, Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas. Kurusawa was an institution.
yes! thank you.
Fo sheezy
Its success inspired the great Mizoguchi to his unequalled run of late masterpieces, including Scorsese favourite Ugetsu Monogatari and the peak of cinema, Sansho the Bailiff. Kurosawa regarded Mizoguchi as Japan's finest. Oh, and Mizoguchi's regular screenwriter was Yoda.
Interesting fact Kurusowa was inspired from Satyajith Ray 😏
I found it boring.
Just saw it a few minutes ago. It blasted my mind. What a great movie. What a great piece of art. Kurosawa was a genius. Yojimbo is next on my list. Wow ... we miss that kind of film today. So powerfull, beautifull and full of meanings.
Ps : 68 views... oh boy !
Hey, stay with my channel because in about a week or two, I'm going to put out a Best of Kurosawa video. And yeah, the views are low, but I just started about three months ago. It's a marathon. Thanks for commenting!
@@LearningaboutMovies hey, i'm in a Kurosawa marathon too (wife gone for 3 days). I just finished the 7 ssamouraïs. A great classic too. The 3 hours and something passed kickly. The ending was prety hard, but accurate so full of meanings again. I personaly prefered Rashomon. More intense. Don't worry i'll stay tuned. Toshiro Mifune is about to reach my top 5 actors of all times. What a man. ^^
@@nicolasdubos2797 I suggest if you like Mifune, watch "The Samurai Trilogy" and also "The Samurai Rebellion" by Kobayashi. Both are personal favorites, and Mifune is awesome in them.
Nicolas DUBOS check out Harakiri it will blow you away.
Seven Samurai is my most favorite 💜 movie ever. It is Avengers with meaning not action.
What’s most amazing is that a movie about so many lies feels so deeply true.
after watching the film i realize that no matter how cruel the world is, in the end its the trust which we have to keep in each othe.! Even tho i dont trust the wood cutter but in the end when the woodcutter walks towards the camera and comes on the audiences side, its upon us to decide whether we'll keep the baby or not, whether we'll have trust in each other or not. Thanks for your point of view. I directly came to your video after watching the film. You have a great channel! :)
thank you. you nailed it, I think. The woodcutter took part in the lies; he also told a false story, and yet we must deal with him in the end, raising up the new generation (represented by the orphaned baby). The ending at once is disturbing and yet also trying offer hope.
I watched this movie a month ago. Thanks for making it that much richer.
thank you.
I loved Rashoman because of its multiple narratives to the same event and couldn't help but also think about how applicable this is to the modern world we live in. This is a great analysis.
thank you. yes, it is an amazing movie about what is I think a universal human problem: how we look at the same thing and yet see it/interpret it very differently.
The woodcutter simply felt guilty of his inability to intervene in the act of the nobleman's killing. So he thought why not save a life now of the baby while he has the chance and redeem himself. A life for a life. Ryt?
or guilty that he was an observer, which might make him a participant. yes, this makes sense.
good point
@@LearningaboutMovies I don't think being a passerby/observer doesn't make someone a participant.
@@lawrencewellington2343 if he just looks and watches, he's not a participant unless he gets something from the scene of the crime
I watched this film last year for a class but could not decipher what Kurosawa wanted to convey in the film. Thanks for this.
you're welcome.
loved the metaphor of the sunlight not entering the forest.
yes! and it goes farther. The woodcutter, who has the axe, can cut down the trees that keep the light from entering. He can let the sun through -- if he chooses to.
Love this film. Great analysis. I think it’s worth pointing out that the baby is an institution of its own within the film. Here is a newborn, innocent, having nothing to do whatsoever with the drama of the 4 stories.
To me the baby’s introduction is saying that, despite what the woodcutter experienced, there is still innocence and perhaps goodness in the world. I know it’s the woodcutter’s decision that reaffirms that to the priest, but even without that decision, the baby served as a light in an otherwise dark and gloomy day
Basically: the whole world doesn’t revolve around three crappy ppl and one morally questionable woodcutter. Ppl can speculate as to why the woodcutter made the choice to take the baby. I see it as the woodcutter deciding to keep believing in humanity’s goodness in the midst of its evils.
In this way, Rashomon is almost an anti-propaganda film: allowing the audience to make the same choice the woodcutter made... or a different one.
I bet the director Haneke likes this one.
I recently purged a ton of my subscriptions-I’m tired of negativity, whether it’s true or not. What I’m looking for is intellectual and philosophical discourse. So I’ll give your channel a shot.
Thank you. I agree with what you are saying about the baby. Freshness enters the world, and the woodcuttter might be able to help it.
The channel here is 95% positive. Avoid some of my reviews of newer movies recently. The entire Great Movies series. Great Directors series, and educational videos are for you.
@@LearningaboutMovies
Oh, I’m not averse to negative reviews. It’s just... I think there’s a lot of crap out there and a lot of ppl are reacting to it. Its nice to have your opinion reaffirmed-a bit of solidarity. But I’m at the point where I’m just not going to bother watching the garbage and I don’t need quite so much solidarity, if that makes sense.
Thanks for the reply. I’m sure I’ll binge your watchlist in the next week or so. Good luck with your channel.
This is not a channel for juveniles, whom I try to discourage from trolling here. Have fun!
I didn't know about this movie, but I'm going to look it up now. Thank you for sharing a great perspective, insights and conclusions from the movie. It's really what sets your reviews apart from other review channels that just talk about the technique of movie making.
thank, I appreciate it.
I just had the wonderfully fortunate experience of seeing it at the cinema without knowing anything about the actual story … just wonderful!!!! And now am enjoying your truly interesting analysis !! Thank you so much!!
Thanks for this great commentary. About the ending, I think it’s also important that the priest is simply left there at the gate philosophizing. He may not be flawed, but he also can’t do something to actually help the baby. He lives purely in a world of theory. The woodcutter is flawed, has sinned in the movie, but he’s the only one who can also actually take action on behalf of the baby.
I have loved this movie for a long time, excellent breakdown! I learned a lot that I have always speculated but never had anyone who even knew of the movie to analyze with! lol
thakn you.
This is such high-quality content! Thanks for your work.
thank you!
Wonderful thank you. I just saw the film for the first time, thought it was outstanding, and your talk has only enhanced that.
Thanks for this!! The explanation of the ending gave me more information and I love this movie even more now! Thank you!
you're welcome.
Great breakdown! Lot's of interesting details I didn't notice on my first watch. Now I'm eager to watch it again with a lot of these things in mind
thank you.
Thank you for showing us the way you analyse rashomon , i'm motivated to be more passionate to study about movies
thank you.
I believe that the last story is the truth. I think this because of the set design. At the beginning when given the only facts we get a long shot through the set, so we know exactly where we are and what is going on. Throughout all the stories, we are given only brief shots of sections of the set so that it is disoranting, and we never know exactly where we are. That is until the last story telling. Then we see the entire set again so that we know exactly where everything takes place and is leading to, once we know where we are the story picks up were the opening started and continues there until the end.
thank you.
This was a great analysis and brought out what I may have intuited, but didn't really understand about the structure of 'Rashomon'. Thanks.
What amazed me most is the story telling by the cuts, that is truly master class sublime.
yes!
Just saw it two days ago. I loved your analysis! It’d be fun to watch it in a theatre, it’d make the audience interaction more noticeable.
thank you.
I feel like there is one major point to this film that goes unnoticed, and that is the character of the priest. He spends the entire movie toiling over his own faith in humanity to the point where he's lost all trust when he pushes away the wood cutter. Now, you can certainly say that the wood cutter repents of his actions, but in following with the theme of the movie, how can the priest be so willing to trust him after knowing that he's a liar and a thief just like the rest of them. Ultimately I think it's because he wanted to believe him. The priest desperately needed a reason to restore his faith in humanity, so he uses the man's perceived generosity as a means of justifying to himself that you can still trust people, not knowing whether the man is being truthful or not, yet giving the baby to the man for his own sake. I believe that the ending can also be interpreted that way, and would only furthering the overall theme of the movie.
it can be interpreted that way, though that's not a path many of us wish to go down!
@@LearningaboutMovies I feel like it might say more about my own world views that I saw it that way, because I am of the opinion that everyone is motivated by self interest, at least for the most part.
Kubrick largely, maybe completely, agrees. Kurosawa would rather that not be true, I think, and sides with the possibility of restoration ala the priest standing in the Rashomon gate. He never gave that hope up, although he came close perhaps in Ran.
I love watching a classic film and then seeing you already have a video about it on your channel :)
Sir, your ending comments is the whole point...humans the worst of the worst, and yet there will always people who will have faith and do the right thing!!!🙏✨👌🦉❣️
Rashomon just gives and gives. I think I have seen it 4 times, and everytime there is something new I didnt notice on an earlier viewing.
Still one of my favorite movies of all time. 💕 It's definitely due for a rewatch soon.
excellent!
A truly great observation about a great film made by a great director .
thank you.
I give this movie "review" 5 stars. Great explanation and shot breakdown. You could do a longer version analyzing each of the character's perspectives and stories (and how the audience feels about them), but this just sums it all up
thank you.
Great analysis it was really enlightening
Interesting analysis---well said!
thank you.
I watched this movie again after years and man I fell involve I miss films like this Akira Kurosawa style of directing is beautiful the question that this movie gives and the subtle answers all play a apart in this movie the movie gives you 4 prospectives and it shows how and why humanity is the way it is so many different stories yet which one is the truth and the with the woodcutter and the other guy was absolutely the why he said how selfish he was and he cared for only himself and basically exposed the woodcutter for Doing the same because he has sinned in his own right and this makes the end with baby and the woodcutter forgiveness be beautiful shows that humanity through all its darkness has hope.
thank you.
Learning about Movies thank you for this review you pin pointed exactly how I felt about Kurosawa movies.
thank you for this video! I subscribed
thank you. I appreciate it.
Great movie and great video, editing is on point
thank you.
I came here by accident, but great video, and I love your bookshelf.
Rashomon is one of my favorites. I always liked this movie and suggested as a best watch to my friends.
Love to Kurosawa
wonderful. thank you.
@@LearningaboutMovies waiting for videos on other Kurosawa movies.
great! I do have one on Kurosawa as a director. have you seen that one?
@@LearningaboutMovies That's Great. I'll watch it now. Thank you.
thank you for the explanation it helped a lot
you're welcome.
Great analysis ❤
I like to think that the woodcutter named the baby "Rashomon"
A lot of the movie treats the characters how people with Borderline Personality tend to see the world, where people are seen in black and white (all good or all bad). The woodcutter part at the end was really important for shattering that. And allows a reprieve for placing ultimate judgement on a person for one of their actions. (In his case stealing a dagger)
Also loved the movies take on how a person's living conditions and environment will ultimately shape how they perceive things, and even who they will believe. Take the priests inability to believe the 'spirit' of the dead man could possibly lie, which is then immediately contradicted by the woodcutters story straight after that.
thank you.
Excellent review and analysis, thank you, btw someone does know the truth, yet is never mentioned to my knowledge!!!🙏✨👌🦉❣️
I think the main point is less on yhe woodcutter and more on the priest. What do you do when there are so much selfishness and villainy in this world? Despite it all, you have to BELIEVE in your fellow man's ability to do good. The woodcutter walks towards us, and it's now up to us to believe he (your fellow man) will do the right thing.
thank you.
Also I've always found it intersting playing with the idea that the priest is the spirit of the Rashomon temple or perhaps a spirit of a priest who once lived there. the way he shutters at the evil of mankind and having his hope in humanity restored at the end.
Just discovered your channel today and look through your old uploads. Most of your What Makes This Movie Great are from the criterion collection list. great stuff lul
thank you.
The GREATEST FILM...no film maker has ever reached at this level of creativity even after 60 years
70!
Er, we all have our favourites. For me, Sansho the Bailiff is the greatest film, and Seven Samurai is greater than Rashomon, and i also love Ozu's Late Spring. And more credit in Rashomon should be given to Akutagawa's short story with the various subjective views of one incident. But Rashomon was crucial in getting more international interest in Japanese films
Did the film mention anything about how the court ruled on who killed the man in view of the conflicting stories? It is strange that no one mention anything.
I don't remember. Wasn't the bandit convicted? If so, it only comes up in dialogue. It would be an intriguing fact, useful for interpretation, to know if guilt at the trial was determined or not.
The tale is narrated on the same day,so the court hadn't yet decided
Since we are meant to be the judge, Kurosawa leaves it to us to decide who we think is responsible for this murder
Absolute masterpiece, one of the greatest movies of all time
yes!
Excellent review about a great film...
thank you.
Great analysis.
Wouldn't agree only on the association with the WWII, as the story is set in the 8 century, and the story was originally written in 1922 (In a Grove by Akutagawa)
Any historical reading would accept WW2 as a way to look at Rashomon. Common throughout history of criticism.
One can find out what is true between those 4 stories. Just deduce parts where every character change story in order to protect himself. Thats why monk lose faith in humanity when he realize that even dead man lies. But regain it after woodcutter takes baby at the end
Excellent!!! So insightful! Thank you!
thank you. and thank you for subscribing. I'm going to put out a video on Akira Kurosawa in a week or two, which will talk comprehensively about his movies.
What makes this movie great? Well, we viewers are contribute too with the movie as an detective to invertigated whos the killer behind that all scenery.
Great movies, bravo Akira Kurosawa.
The beggar running into frame as a representation of the audience blew my mind. I hadn’t noticed that and same with the judges not responding. I spent the entire movie wondering when they’d reveal the judges. Literally just finished it and that’s fucking awesome. Reminiscent of Goodfellas when the court is revealed in the end
yes! thank you.
beautiful observations, cheers fella
thank you.
@@LearningaboutMovies no problem, do you think the idea for the film might have something in common with the blind men and the elephant story if you've heard it, that ones Indian I think but could be there's analogues of it in other cultures I havnt spotted
yes, same general idea, though I don't know if Kurosawa was familiar with that particular parable.
If anyone's interested in watching more Kurosawa's, these are the 5 I recommend: Seven Samurai, High And Low, Throne of Blood, Ikiru and Ran.
thanks, there's a Kurosawa "great director" top-10 video on this channel as well.
More credit generally should be given to the source short story In a Bamboo Grove by Akutagawa, with various subjective accounts of an incident. Can you do credit to Mizoguchi's sublime masterpiece Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and what makes it great?
there's a Sansho the Bailiff video on this channel. thank you.
Nice. do you have an episode on the human condition? interested what you think
Thanks George
you're welcome.
Great example of a non-linear narrative, but perhaps the most famous example, DW Griffith's 1916 silent masterpiece, "Intolerance"
yes, thank you. that movie deserves an analysis video.
I seriously couldnt trust woodcutter either. I knew baby did not have nothing left to take at this point, but damn...the movie put me in same place as the monk. I couldnt trust him either
in the end, we have to, or trust doesn't exist. it's a tough choice, and world.
Interesting looking back at the courtroom. All the characters are in the shadows. We can interpret this as them lying. Where they are not in the shadow they are telling the truth?
Hi there. No matter how many times I watch Pasolini's Hawks and sparrows, I don't seem to understand it. Would you please consider reviewing this film too?
I would. I have been avoiding Pasolini for a good long time here, yet probably should dive in in the next year or two. thank you for the prompting.
@@LearningaboutMovies thanks.
I wish you had talked about the amazing stories that the movie was based on, both written by Akutagawa Ryuunosuke. The main plot was taken from "Yabu no Naka"/ 藪の中 (In a Grove) and the part with the three men discussing the main plot was based on "Rashōmon"/羅生門 (Rashōmon is the name of the gate they're sitting at. "Mon"/門 means gate.) You were also pronouncing Rashōmon slightly wrongly (although this is not a criticism, just an observation.) The plot device in the movie with the commoner and the baby brilliantly replaces the original story's plot device of the servant and the old woman, and furthers the narrative with the inclusion of the priest and the woodcutter, presenting a much more optimistic worldview than Akutagawa Sensei's much more brutally pragmatic conclusion in a calamities and famine-ravaged Kyoto surrounded by the reality of death and destruction. The story of Yabu no Naka is also altered slightly in the movie. I love the writings of Akutagawa Sensei, including those two stories, and I love Akira Kurosawa's movies, including this one. I wish Akutagawa Sensei could've watched this movie. I highly recommend reading the original stories, especially if you love this movie
I have not read them. thanks for the recommendation.
I have the idea to make a little hobbie remake in 2023 time. What points of the movie you would take with it and what is changeable?
Sorry for the language im no a english speaker
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
yeah, and Kurosawa dealt with that in a movie he released in the same year, "Scandal." Worth checking out.
you certainly made it a lot more richer and provided more depth however I much prefered IKIRU to RASHOMON
Thank you
I really wish some creative in Hollywood would draw heavy inspiration from Akira Kurosawa to create a truly great and original Star Wars story.
they could make a Seven Samurai Star Wars very easily.
@@LearningaboutMovies The Knights of Ren could have been that in their backstory.
I love this film because it stumps me and I can't really tell whose version is the truth. Unlike in the novels of Agatha Christie, the killer is divulged. We the audience don't know until now who's the killer and what the director tries to make of it, maybe he also didnt know. Now I'm beginning to lean on the idea that the truth is bits and pieces of all versions, and u add them together. That's what really has happened. It's not whose version is the real one.
I think you are on the right path. But also it helps not only to piece the information together and see what correlates, but also understanding what could motivate each person to lie and what they could gain from it. It may not help reach a conclusion, but it does offer a more possible inclination as to what happened and why a witness would lie.
This movie single handedly changed my perspective of humanity. I used to despise humanity and wanted everyone to be nuked but Kurosawa's views changed my mind and made me question my own vires. Now I am on my way to getting a degree in psychology so I can become a addiction therapist.
That is remarkable. thank you for sharing.
The script. Brilliance of simplicity with a touch of mystery. Other things sure helped - like acting, lighting, directing, editing, costumes etc. but the script is the main thing.
The movie might as well be a theatre play and it would still be almost as good. A living proof that you can make a masterpiece even with a shoestring budget.
based on a novel, though Kurosawa was a genius at adapting written work.
How do I know you're not lying to us, the audience? D:
paranoia!
Do you know who the main character of the flim is?
nobody. they are all in it together, though the priest and woodcutter are the observers AND the ones who control the message.
“Stop crying!” 😂 us in Japanese film class
according to story written by writter and directed , who's narrative is true?????
At first you go into this thinking that the movie is asking you to solve the mystery. In reality there is no way of solving it. Everyone of them is telling only SOME of the Truth. Everyone of them is telling SOME lies. But for sure, all of them are motivated by self-interest. See that is the point, truth is sometimes obscured by perspective.
I was intrigued by the movie, not becoz it is Akiras but it is unique for its time
Akiras?
@@LearningaboutMovies Akira's movie... 😅 Nice video BTW
thank you.
Just watched up to 2 minutes.
I am going to watch the movie. After watching I would come
very good. feel free to come back.
@@LearningaboutMovies
Thanks bro. It's a nice movie , mind-blowing,
It shows real nature of human being.
Thanks to your review.
For what it's worth; the Hollywood version is quite good.
The Outrage is among the best attempts at Kurosawa's style.
thank you.
The cynic in me can't help but doubt the woodcutter's story about "having six kids". I know that isn't the point but damn i can't help but feel like Kurosawa wanted the woodcutter's intentions to be at least somewhat ambiguous as well
Me not understanding something in film class
Time to google this dude
say hi to your prof for me.
Do you think Rashomon is a postmodernist movie?
Sounds very Kantian. Theoretical knowledge of the truth about the world is unobtainable, but we can know our practical duties in it.
I suppose. I wonder what in Japanese philosophy would concur with that.
@@LearningaboutMovies that would be a fascinating question. Though even at the time Kurosawa had a reputation for being very "westernized". The Hidden Fortress, for example, has a bit of a critique of Bushido in it.
Is the baby priest's child?
I have never heard this one. Is there evidence in the movie for it?
sir, how do you know this is what Kurosawa meant
I don't. But that is not an interpretation problem, unless the interpreter claims that he is telling you what the artist meant.
@@LearningaboutMovies lol
I've always felt that the woodcutter deceived the priest and sold the baby for some gold or something, but your explanation in the ending makes sense, I believe it's all about our perception afterall
wow that is bleak!
Shame played a major role why everybody lied.
Although the bandit was not motivated in that way.
@@LearningaboutMovies Bandit was ashamed of his cowardness? Thats why he lied. The Nobleman lied to preserve his honor. And the noblewomans lies were societal shame driven. The innocent bystander was ashamed he stole the knife (presumably to feed his children). IMO
Something no one ever seems to say. The three main characters are always very active, more so than real people ever are. They seem crazed, manic . and if they are insane can there be any truth?
true, though those characters are presented via two perspectives: the storytellers and the camera. their behavior is managed and determined by those perceptions. with that, how much truth can there be?
I don’t understand why each person claims to be the one who killed the samurai, except the woodcutter. Are we supposed to infer that he’s the guilty person who killed the samurai, because he’s the only one who didn’t claim to be? I’m thinking the bandit and the woman both flee the scene, leaving the samurai alive but tied up, and the knife is somewhere on the ground, out of the samurai’s reach. The woodcutter sees the valuable knife, but can’t take it and leave the samurai alive, because the samurai will know that the woodcutter has it. So the woodcutter murders the samurai, and takes his knife.
this is where a knowledge of Japanese culture would prove beneficial -- why would three Japanese blame themselves, each one, including in a movie right after WW2? Is it to place the blame on oneself for the sake of the nation? a guilt complex? I have thought one of the last two or both, but someone more insightful into Japanese culture ought to try to answer.
I do not think we know who was guilty -- maybe everybody.
I respect Kurosawa and I can notice the artfulness in this film, but I never felt connected or invested in it. Maybe it’s because I found nearly every single character to be obnoxiously annoying. The constant screams, crying, and laughing as well as the “water-bottle” sweating of the characters really made me non-engaged. I love the music though. And the scene at the beginning where the man finds the corpse is a beautiful shot. The message of the duality of man is present here, but I don’t feel like it’s pushed enough to resonate with me. Apart from that, this one just wasn’t for me, unfortanutely.
Todays films are nothing close it
no, though almost none are.
how do we know the woodcutter is telling the truth when he takes the baby? maybe it's "honey i'm home & i brought dessert?" why should he be believed?
that could be the darkest interpretation in movie history! You, um, do have a point -- the film has that opening.
@@LearningaboutMovies i read somewhere that the ending Kurosawa wanted was to fade into hopelessness, darkness & rain but the studio wanted a bright Sunny ending with hope. with all that that the Priest knew of human cruelty & depravity, how did the woodcutter's simple act of taking the baby "restore" his faith in humanity? he was no great sage but just another mindless fool.
this one never resonated with me - i prefer Last Year in Marienbad as an exploration of similar idea - another great video by you though!
thank you. much apprecaited.
Mifune is a great actor but Kurosawa let him go over the top in this film and in 7 Samurai.I find this film unwatchable now.Introduced Japanese cinema to the West but I prefer the films by Mizoguchi,Ozu and Naruse from this period.This is where John Belushi found his inspiration.
there is no 'truth'
except that one?
I first saw Rashomon when I was nine years old; my parents were watching it on TV on a Saturday night. This was the ENGLISH-DUBBED version. Though the dubbing actors tried hard, unfortunately they affect pseudo Japanese accents. This comes across as unintentionally funny, and make a strange movie appear even more strange. As a child, when I watched this movie all I could think was “Why are those people talking so funny? What is this WEIRD movie?”
yes, rashomon have a great meaning behind the movie
but the acting omg, it just so lame and flat, especially the woman lol
anyways thank you for making it more clear for me
you're welcome.
I didn't connect so much emotionally
it's not easy.