The premiere of Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa at the prestigious Venice Film Festival in 1951 did more than win him the first prize at the film festival. Up until then, the story dictated the narrative of a film. After Rashomon, we learned how narratives can dictate a story, too.This is called the "Rashomon effect." Let's dig into what it is and how you can use it in your stories.About Kurosawa’s Rashomon Rashomon is one of Akira Kurosawa's earliest films. After the Second World War, as Japan was recovering from the aftermath, Kurosawa embarked on an artistic journey, making movies that aimed to restore hope and faith in a ruined nation, while depicting the rawest form of human psychology. Rashomon is a simple story where a thief is being tried for the murder of a samurai and his wife’s rape. The film opens at the Rashomon gate in Kyoto, with three characters—a woodcutter, a priest, and a commoner, seeking shelter from torrential rain, discussing a strange trial they witnessed earlier that day. Three days before, the woodcutter stumbled over the body of the said samurai. After his report to the police, the murderer was arrested and put on trial. But as each witness is called to testify, each of them narrates the same incident absolutely differently from each other. None of their statements and recollections about how the samurai died match with each other—be it the thief, the samurai’s wife, the woodcutter, or the dead samurai’s ghost. As we tap into...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Today