This week in the film history cinema syllabus is Japnese cinema. Thankfully, the professor neglected to mention Godzilla monster films and those awful-in-every-way-possible anime movies (Sorry folks, I despise anime) in his lecture and decided to focus solely on the work of Akira Kurosawa. Which wasn’t a bad thing to do seeing how his work had influneced all the better American western films of the late 1950’s and 1960’s. (e.g. The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars.) Let’s not forget that the first Star Wars was heavily influenced by the film The Hidden Fortress.

Which leads us to this week’s film, Rashomon. The film that brought Akira Kurosawa and Japanese cinema to the forefront of the world stage. Also like the other films so far in this film history class, was a film that I had read about and always wanted to see. Everyone knows the premise of Rashomon where a priest, a woodcutter and a bystander are taking shelter in the ruined city gate of the city of Rashomon during a rainstorm where they recall a trial where a bandit attacked and raped the wife of an samurai, who is then murdered by the bandit. Each person’s version of the story, as told in flashbacks via testimony during the trial differs from the other. The group of men in the framing device sequence are confused about which story is the truth, until that is the woodcutter finally admits that he had witnessed the whole murder in secret.

I have to admit that the bandit, as played by Toshiro Mifune, has to be one of the most charismatic actors to ever have graced a movie screen even though he had some moments where he looked sorta like the modern day comedic actor Jason Lee. (I’m just calling it how I see it, folks!)

I was totally freaked out by the actress who played the medium who summoned the spirit of the dead samurai she really looked like she was possessed and the echoy voice over of the actor who played the samurai more than helped to give serious weight to this eerie effect.

I was severely disappointed, however, with the last scene of the film with the abandoned baby and the three men from the framing device. It just seemed so forced and contrived to me.

next week on the syllabus: Hollywood in the 1950’s and Singing In The Rain.

jareddriskill