In terms of photography and scheduling, the three different visual expressions have their own characteristics, under the Rasho gate, in front of the interrogation hall, and in the woods, which indeed support the tension of the story to the maximum extent and complement each other. But that's perhaps the movie's greatest strength.
The original novels "In the Bamboo Forest" and "Rashomon" each have unique narrative motifs. The former goes beyond simple moral concerns, using a multi-angle and purely objective narrative method, it is easy to lead readers to a relatively high level of humanity and make them ignore the suspense generated by the literal material. The latter is a process of gradually emphasizing criticism and irony in a dark and desperate background.
In contrast to this film, the character of the woodcutter communicates these two narrative motifs through the viewing of "In the Bamboo Forest" and the lies under the "Rashomon". But what's hard for me to understand is that, apart from the connection of the story, there is no deep connection between the two themes. The pretense of the people in "Bamboo Forest" is not superficial and hypocritical. What they cover up is not behavior but character; although the woodcutter also participated in the re-creation of the story, his story is mainly to cover up his profit-seeking behavior. Therefore, in the end, the woodcutter adopted the baby, which can only be regarded as the exit of the latter theme, and it is also the solution to the moral problem raised by the film at the end. a false solution.
So why do I say that "Rashomon" is a waste of pen and ink, the above are basically the reasons. Another very important point worth exploring is that the confession of the samurai's wife in the original book (or rather a confession) was not done in front of the interrogator, but in Kiyomizu Temple (and her murder in the movie). also rewritten). In order to make it easier to trace Kurosawa Akira's adaptation intentions, I will discuss this issue to a certain extent below.
If we first determine that at least one of the three main characters in "Bamboo Forest" has moral problems in a narrow sense, and this unacceptable flaw needs to be resolved through his re-creation of events, then this person is in the confession. The deduction should objectively have no criminal disadvantage and at the same time occupy the moral high ground. After studying the film and the book, and referring to the masculine traditions in director Akira Kurosawa's work, I can almost conclude that of the three characters most likely to retain a narrow moral flaw is the samurai's wife. In her relationship with two men, she not only has the tendency to incite the two to kill, but also has the tendency to change her mind and try to disappear forever:
Tajomaru's confession contains a self-defensive description of women's sexual attraction and the promotion of masculinity. As a desperado, he does not care about criminal disadvantages, but only cares about the "brilliance" of his image; the confession of the samurai undead, There is no doubt that there is no need to bear any criminal pressure. When we do not consider the truth, the wife becomes vicious and lewd in his mouth. Even the perpetrator of the atrocities, Tajomaru, can't agree. Beginning with disgust, he resolved his incompetence and deep castration anxiety for failing to protect his wife; while the warrior's wife was in the middle of the two men, on the one hand, there was a moral crisis related to sex and ethics, and on the other hand, she was burdened with heavy burdens. criminal pressure.
We can see a very interesting phenomenon: in the original book, the woman explained that she deliberately killed her husband at Kiyomizu Temple (without criminal pressure), while in the movie, the woman explained that she accidentally killed her husband in the interrogation hall. I traced back to this point and can finally start to reason: what is the intention of Kurosawa Akira to make this adaptation?
Going back to what I said at the beginning, can everything that happened in "Bamboo Forest" be related to the theme of "Rashomon"? According to the established text of the film, we do see a split, and Kurosawa's adaptation is aimed at trying to bring the two together. The wife of a samurai who is under criminal pressure, that is, the moral flaw in the narrow sense I mentioned earlier, according to the logic in the movie, will definitely not admit that she deliberately killed her husband in the interrogation hall, and only this, what happened "in the bamboo forest" Only in some way will it be related to the theme of "Rashomon", that is, a critique of hypocrisy at a lower level. What Kurosawa did to the people in the "Bamboo Forest", especially the wives of samurai, was to add such a layer of moral shady in a narrow sense, so that the story of "In the Bamboo Forest" could be avoided by a purely objective story based only on multiple perspectives. The narrative is covered in metaphysical technical overtones.
However, the discussion of character in the stories recreated by people in "In the Bamboo Forest" is more abstract and high-level than the babies in "Rashomon". No matter how the Samurai's Wife in Kurosawa's lens is given a narrow moral flaw in the frame, the main body and the ending of this film give me a split impression. And this kind of separation, in my opinion, seriously damages the value output of the film and the confirmation of the motif.
No matter how many babies are adopted by the woodcutter who took the short knife, it is not enough to be the outlet of moral writing in the story of "In the Bamboo Forest". Akutagawa Ryunosuke made the story form a pleasing ring in form through the woodcutter; while Akira Kurosawa turned the woodcutter into a tail called "morality" and brought it home, but the huge body was left behind. on site.
This is what I call "wasting pen and ink".
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