Rashōmon

A forest, a crime – and four versions of the same event: drawing on two stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Akira Kurosawa constructs an experiment on truth and perception. Beneath the Rashōmon city gate, a monk, a woodcutter and a passer-by recount a murder case whose sequence of events was reconstructed in court through conflicting testimonies. Flashbacks make each of these versions appear as a possible reality – only the location and the characters remain constant. The film does not unfold this into a mystery to be solved, but rather a tapestry of perspectives and interpretations. James Bernadelli: “It is not about guilt or innocence,” but rather something that goes deeper: “the inability of every human being to know the truth.”
(Florian Widegger)