Rating: 
Summary: The Nature of Truth
Review: Man can not tell the truth. The truth exists only for an instant, after that it is only a memory, a memory filtered through human perception. Does this make man evil? No, it only makes him human...
"Rashomon" deals with such themes. Akira Kurasawa's thought-provoking, meditative, and inovative film asks philosophical questions about the nature of truth, by showing one act of fatal violence as seen through the eyes of four different people. The results are varied, and obscure the truth. But this is far more complex than one would imagine, for the characters do not, as it is often said, tell the story to make themselves seem the more innocent. In fact, 3/4 claim to have commited the murder themselves. This results in a profound, but delightful psychological and philosophical puzzle of a film.
The visual aesthetics of Kurasawa's film are beautiful, and most innovative considering the very low budget. As a whole the film has a soft, meditative, and very Japanese feel. Scenes of the sun playing through the trees, dappling the ground in dancing shadows, come to mind as being most effective. But what is most impressive, is that the pacing can be so lively, and entertaining, despite the fact that the majority of the film is made up of variations of the same scene.
Kurasawa's pallete of truth and humanity introduced western culture to Japanese cinema, and is still a fine introduction to the film of that culture. All in all, "Rashomon" is most interesting, and satisfying fare. World cinema at its finest!
Rating:
Summary: Hypnotic
Review: The first time this movie told its story, I sat there almost bored, but the second time my interest was perked, and by the fourth time, I was mesmerized. Confused? This movie has that tendency. It's basic "hook" is that 4 people tell very different versions of the same story, and each time you hear it, your faith in reality is shaken just a little bit. Even in the end, you won't know left from right, but you'll probably have a grin from ear to ear. Rashamon is a masterpiece because of the utter ease in which all this flows. This movie often made me wonder just how on earth it was conceived and created in the first place. The audience is effortlessly introduced to the story as if it were an after-thought, just some gossip between peasants. A noble samurai and his loving wife are attacked by a ruthless bandit on the highway. The samurai is tortured and killed, and the wife raped. Or is that really what happened? The wild bandit gives a very different version of the story, and then, amazingly enough, the dead samurai speaks through a medium and tells HIS version. After all three witnesses speak, you don't know who is the villian and who is the hero. And yet, amazingly enough, the movie digs deeper, and one of the peasants tells HIS version of the story, as he witnessed it from behind a bush. As I sat watching this final telling in utter disbelief, I suddenly thought: I have just watched the same thing 4 times in a row, and never once was bored! Of course, Toshiro Mifune gives a typically outstanding performance, yet this film is all about Kurosawa, the master director working behind the scenes. Every shot and edit is in perfect place, nothing the director does undercuts his actors or his story. There are no harsh angles like in Kubrick, or sappy endings from Spielberg. Even the strong, general themes from directors like Ford are muted to serve the movie as a whole, complete story. And what a story it is...
Rating:
Summary: For history buffs, too!
Review: ...I mostly wanted to add another viewer type that may enjoy the movie: students of history. I first saw Rashomon in an upper-level history class required to graduate. The reason for showing this particular movie makes sense when you think about it; the viewer and the court in the movie have to do exactly what historians do all the time. An incident occurs - in this case, a murder. When speaking to four different witness, you'll hear four different accounts. (It's interesting, too, that even a dead man has his own view and not some omnipotent third-person perspective gained from his switch in planes of existence.) Though this is pretty obvious when you think of criminal investigations, people rarely think of this when many, many years have passed. We start to believe that anything written way-back-when is the gospel truth, but when you're lucky enough to find a record of an event, it will be tainted by the same points of view as are depicted in the movie. My favorite case-in-point: watch the way the bandit and the man fight when described by one of them compared to the way the peasant sees it! It's worth a giggle.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest film ever made!
Review: This is Kurosawa's masterpeice. He was the greatest director in the history of film(the head of the American Film Institute also shares this opinion...it is not ventured lightly)and this is the greatest of his achievements. He probably made four out of the ten greatest films ever, but 200 years from now this is the one film students will study endlessly. From the exquisite pacing to the stunning cinematography to the classic story of the terrible unknowable nature of truth and the effect of perception on it, it perhaps never will be equaled. Go ahead and rent it and see for yourself. Then, like me, you will want to own it on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: almost here
Review: Just wanted to let peole know that criterion has this film listed for a march release on dvd. for people who love it as much as i do, this is one of the biggest dvd releases in a while.
Rating:
Summary: Rashomon
Review: I watched this movie several times in my youth. It's miraculous! This was the first Kurosawa's movie I saw. That prompted me to see his two other movies - Ran and Seven Samurais. When Rashomon became available in our local library (two years ago) it became the most popular video for over several weeks. The very moment it was returned to the library - was immediately taken by a library member. The crucial personality of this movie is not bandit Tayomaru nor the killed man, nor the killed man's wife. It's the witness, the logger. For him, the truth, the fight of two men and the death of one of them, is an unbearable burden. The logger did not want to accept it as truth, he did not want what's happened to happen. Even - he did not want to be a witness - he was simply doomed to be a witness. He knew the truth but not able to deliver it to anybody. He is not a coward - rather a man that cannot accept the truth and unpredictable and not known cosequence of delivering it to the court. The dagger he took and, probably sold in order to overcome some of the difficulties of his, poor man everyday's life - is just an expensive "loan" which he decided to pay in full by adopting the abandoned baby. How much this world be more beautiful if every living man decides to redem himself the way this logger/witness did do?
Rating: 
Summary: An uneven, sometimes misunderstood classic.
Review: This film is famous for portraying the same crime from the point of view of the three people involved plus a witness. In fact, the word "Rashomon" has actually come to mean a situation in which different accounts of the same story vary wildly. WHAT IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED is the framing device used to narrate and comment on these different versions of the incident. Strangers taking refuge in a temple from a rainstorm relate the four stories and wax philosophic on the nature of humanity. These scenes definitely become preachy at times, but they're completely necessary. Without them, it's a gimmicky movie about memory and the subjective quality of experience. With them, it's about the nature of humanity and our hope for the future. Also the temple scenes are a needed buffer between the flashbacks.
About the acting, as many have noted, the actors in the flashbacks DO do a caricature of their own roles. What many here seem to have missed is that this is on purpose to exaggerate each storyteller's viewpoint and to change the tone in each account. As a counterpoint, the actors in the present are almost overly somber.
A twist at the end in the temple reminded me of the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It actually struck me as a bit too deux-ex-machina, but Rashomon will always be a classic, and deservedly so.
Rating:
Summary: The Outrage
Review: A viewer said "Simply put this movie is 50 minutes too long." Well, that's not the way _I_ remembered it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Film
Review: Akira Kurasawa has done yet another great movie. Rashomon takes place in feaudal Japan in a old abandoned temple where 3 men gather reminiscing over the 4 stories told by a wood cutter, a theif, a wife, and a priest. This story is compelling and is one of the greatest films to come out of Japan. Akira Kurasawa has also directed Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro all staring Toshiro Mifune they are my top favorite Kurasawa films and recoment tem all along with Rashomon. To be blunt this film is AMAZING
Rating: 
Summary: 1 star because that as low as I'm allowed
Review: Now before you come down on me for my low rating please know that I have a clear understanding of the plot and lesson this movie portrays about mankind. Simply put this movie is 50 minutes too long.
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