Part of Akira Kurosawa: A Retrospective
A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, RASHOMON is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accounts of a man’s murder of his wife, which director Akira Kurosawa presents with striking imagery and an ingenious use of flashbacks. This eloquent masterwork and international sensation revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema — and a commanding new star by the name of Toshiro Mifune — to the Western world.
“Essentially flawless, Akira Kurosawa’s masterwork about the killing of a samurai told from four different perspectives is so revered that it has become part of the structural language of cinema…. It’s a definitive movie about movie-making. Kurosawa films his murder tale exquisitely, four times. Each one is true. Each one is perfect. But each one is also a lie. And that’s cinema.” —Kevin Maher, The Times (UK)
“RASHOMON struck the world of film like a thunderbolt. Directed by Kurosawa in the early years of his career, before he was hailed as a grandmaster, it was made reluctantly by a minor Japanese studio, and the studio head so disliked it that he removed his name from the credits. Then it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, effectively opening the world of Japanese cinema to the West. It won the Academy Award as best foreign film. It set box office records for a subtitled film. Its very title has entered the English language, because, like CATCH-22, it expresses something for which there is no better substitute.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Watching the film when it first arrived 70-odd years ago must have felt revolutionary…. A still-electrifying experience to watch all these years later. It is a truly daring and innovative work that burrows in your consciousness and never leaves.” —Luke Buckmaster, Guardian (UK)