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Rashomon(羅生門)

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

Japan

•

1950

1h28

Akira Kurosawa

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Director

Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori

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Stars

Crime, Drama, Mystery

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Genre

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Through ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife in this Kurosawa classic. Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice.

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WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING?

Stella Rumble Profile picture for Stella Rumble

A fascinating look at the subjectivity of the human experience, as the film explores the differing flashbacks of people who experienced the exact same event. The film questions what is "true" and the objectivity of the camera through these flashbacks, and while it is not one of my favorite films narrative-wise, I think it does something really interesting and innovative around these themes of perspective and justice.

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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?

80

Time Out by

This level of mastery is timeless, and although the movie is overly deliberate at times, when it takes off, it really flies.
88

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

The film is still one of the most glorious testaments to the frustrations and exhilarations of chasing an unvarnished truth.
100

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Today, nearly fifty years after it was made, Rashomon has lost none of its fascination or power. It's still a marvelous piece of cinema that asks unanswerable questions of great import.
100

Empire by Kim Newman

Kurosawa is always worth a look but this is a particular classic that has influenced so much to come, it's almost essential.
100

RogerEbert.com by Roger Ebert

The wonder of Rashomon is that while the shadowplay of truth and memory is going on, we are absorbed by what we trust is an unfolding story.
100

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

Every element in the film, from the dense thicket of forest branches to master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa's deceptive framing and lighting design, is precisely calibrated to make the facts more difficult to discern.

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