September 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of director Akira Kurosawa's death. In the film creation career of the master's life, "Rashomon" is most praised by fans for its exquisite artistic techniques and heavy humanistic thinking. Created in 1950, this black-and-white film is 88 minutes long. Although it is not as good-looking as "Seven Samurai" or as witty as "In the Heart", it is still highly regarded by thousands of filmmakers. The photography style and plot structure of "Rashomon" have been imitated by future generations, and the master's reflection on life is enough for everyone to immerse themselves in it and ask themselves. The story of "Rashomon" is adapted from the short story "In the Bamboo Forest" by author Akutagawa Ryunosuke, and "Rashomon" is another of his novels. Akutagawa Ryunosuke is a Japanese novelist of the Taisho era. He devoted his life to creating short stories, using novel and bizarre plots, paying more attention to the ugly phenomenon of society, and his writing style is cold, concise and powerful. In 1922, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, who had just returned from a trip to China, wrote "In the Bamboo Forest", imitating the structure of Wilkie Collins' "Moon Stone", the originator of British modern detective novels. People are involved in the mystery, and reflect on human nature through stories. After Akutagawa Ryunosuke committed suicide by taking sleeping pills in 1927, in order to commemorate him, the Japanese literary circle set up the "Akutagawa Award" to encourage newcomers. This award is as famous as the "Naoki Award" in the Japanese literary circle. Akira Kurosawa used the story of "In the Bamboo Forest" to complete the amazing work "Rashomon". The story takes place in the Heian Dynasty, where wars and natural disasters continued. The architectural style of this Rashomon built by Akira Kurosawa is very strange, and it is also a symbol of time and life. It was raining at the beginning of the story. A woodcutter, a passerby, and a wandering monk formed a trio and began to discuss a murder incident in a bamboo forest. The case revolves around a robber and a samurai couple passing through a bamboo forest, another threesome. Akira Kurosawa once again set foot in the triangular relationship after "Zi Sanshiro", and this time the intention is more obvious, that is, to make the human nature fall apart in this seemingly three-in-one combination, and the audience also forms an implicit relationship with the characters in the play and the film's creative team. triangle relationship. The suspect was caught and sent to court for trial. It turned out to be the robber Tajomaru played by Toshiro Mifune. Tajomaru took a nap in the bamboo forest, and ran into the passing samurai Takehiro Kanazawa and his wife Masa. A gust of wind blew, and the true face of Masa was seen by Tajomaru, who was instantly elated and moved with evil thoughts. He lured the samurai to the depths of the bamboo forest, knocked them down and bound them, and deceived the real sand to the samurai, intending to humiliate the woman here to show his husband, and satisfy his perverted desire. The reason for arriving here was basically clear, and the consequence was that the samurai was killed by a knife, and the corpse was caught by the woodcutter and reported to the officials. In the film, the flashback method is used to first give the plot of the woodcutter hitting the corpse, and then explain the cause of the incident, which is also a common method of setting suspense. It seems that this film is an ordinary detective solving story, but Kurosawa obviously does not want to be misunderstood as Edgar Allan Poe. Then the story began to get a little interesting, and several parties began to express their opinions around who killed the samurai. The first person to be tried was the main criminal, Tajomaru. His giggling expression had nothing to do with him, which made people think that he was the kind of master who kills without blinking an eye. Tajomaru confessed to the crime of killing the samurai, and was even quite proud of his ability to fight the samurai for twenty rounds and to easily capture the heart of a beautiful woman. In his story, Hayasaka Fumio wrote a high-pitched soundtrack that complimented Tajomaru's heroic deeds. Since the suspect took the initiative to confess, it seems that the case can be closed, but the party, Zhensha, gave another statement. Zhensha admitted her humiliation, and she felt ashamed when she faced her husband's indifferent eyes, so she intended to make her husband become a full name festival, but she fainted accidentally, and maybe accidentally stabbed her husband to death in the process of falling. . Accompanied by Shinsa's confession, the music becomes gentle and slightly sad. The case was once again confusing. In order to thoroughly understand the case, Little Japan also brought into play the spiritism of the gods. The witch, played by Fumiko Honma, made a fool of herself and actually attached the ghost of a dead samurai to her body. The samurai told an even sadder story, and was even more saddened to see his wife, after being humiliated in front of him, ask the robber to kill him. Even though he had forgiven the robber in his heart, he was still full of curses and resentment towards his wife. With this rage, he swung his sword to himself, achieving redemption in a Bushido spirit. The music is somewhat eerie and spooky here. The same story, but because of the different statements of the parties, there are three theories. Along with these three separate narratives are three completely different soundtracks. The sometimes exciting, sometimes resentful and sometimes weird music sets off the different emotional states of the presenters and draws a clear line between the three stories. Zhang Yimou tried to replicate the structure of "Rashomon" in "Hero", but replaced different music with different tones, which seemed more stylized on the big screen. The three stories are different, but the cause and effect are the same. Because of a spur of the moment, Tajomaru took a fancy to a woman he shouldn't have, so he started this absurd thing, and as a result, the samurai died. But samurai died in different ways, the key lies in the murder weapon. In Tajomaru's story, the samurai was killed by a long sword, while in the latter two stories, the samurai was stabbed to death by a short sword belonging to Masa. Who is lying, the yamen can know by looking at the corpse. But Akira Kurosawa has no intention of dwelling on the truth, because this is not a case investigation story, and the director wants to express much farther. So there is the last story, which is the story of what the woodcutter who stood under Rasho's door told his own eyes. After insulting Masha, Tajomaru begged her to go with him. Masa, who was unwilling to make a decision, asked Tajomaru to fight with her husband. Unexpectedly, her husband did not want to compete with Tajomaru because she had been insulted by others. Maruya lost the courage to fight with the samurai. After being provoked by the almost mentally broken Masa, the two finally fought a battle, but the scene was very ugly when they lost their helmets and armor, and finally hit Tajomaru by mistake and got the upper hand and killed the samurai. There is no accompaniment of the soundtrack in this story, just like our ordinary life, which implies that this is the real process of things. So far, the truth has come out. It was Tajomaru who killed the samurai with a long sword. So where did that dagger go? Akira Kurosawa laid the foreshadowing here, and the truth was not revealed until later. Through the mouths of passers-by, the audience learned that the short knife was taken away by a greedy woodcutter, and the reason why the woodcutter gave false testimony in court was for this reason, not just because he was worried about being entangled in the case. middle. Once the mystery is solved, it seems to solve all the doubts in the case, but in fact it raises a new question. We already know that some of the above four stories are true and false, and we basically know which ones are true and which ones are false, but we still want to know why they each said some lies, and what are these lies defending? After careful analysis, we can see that the woodcutter used a lie to defend his greed for money, Tajomaru used a lie to defend his vanity, Masa used a lie to defend his reputation, and a samurai used a lie to defend his dignity. The woodcutter's lies cost the least. Since the case has nothing to do with himself, he only cares about small property. Even if it was a small matter as small as a short knife, after all, it was a loss of face, so he did not tell passersby and wandering monks. Tajomaru knew that he was going to die, so he tried his best to smear gold on his face, trying to use heroic feats to satisfy his vanity of being considered a strong thief, and to cover up the essence of his being just a cowardly thief. Zhensha is a woman, and when this happened, what she cared about most was her own reputation. So in her story, she covered up the details of her giving up resistance because of erotic pleasure, and disguised herself as a strong girl. A samurai is neither brave nor noble, he can't beat others, and he is as timid as a mouse. For him, the most important thing to consider is to maintain his Bushido spirit, so he made up a heroic story of suicide. The director, who was born in a samurai family, regrets that the Bushido spirit is no longer here. The case is over, and the cause and effect have been reported. But the director still felt unfulfilled, so let the rain in Rashomon continue. In order to capture the effect of rain, the film crew also added ink to the water. And the actors have to work for a long time in this crumbling Rashomon setting, which is also very dedicated. A baby's cry cut through the rain, and the woodcutter found that passers-by were stealing the abandoned baby's coat and wanted to stop him, so the passerby made it clear that he had stolen the short knife. Passers-by's words are not amazing, and they die endlessly, and by the way, they tell the fact that everyone in the world is deceiving. At this time, Akira Kurosawa was no longer just the director of the play in the play, but wanted to question the world in a philosophical tone with the attitude of God. At this time, the film is extraordinarily silent, the people in the play are contemplating, and the viewers are also deeply thinking. In this world, everyone is deceiving more or less, and what's more, we are all used to talking about it. In order to obtain some extra benefits or to maintain some self-image, we will constantly deceive others, but over time we have been deceiving our own conscience. When the world loses its sincerity, is this world worth fighting for? There are many literary and artistic works discussing such topics. Jim Carrey laughter and lamented life in "The King of Big Talk", and Pinocchio was taught not to lie or his nose would grow longer. But Akira Kurosawa's thinking is particularly heavy. He builds a high house with a general style, and expresses despair to mankind with an apocalyptic attitude. We are all a part of human beings, and we are connected to ourselves personally, so we also have an inexplicable sadness. The film was shot at a time when Japan was in a period of post-war regime change, the country was in decline, its economy was decadent, and its productivity was seriously declining, and the people's self-confidence was gradually losing. Akira Kurosawa expressed his confusion and anxiety as an artist by borrowing the common human mind to think about the future direction of the country. Now, when he looks at Rashomon, he is still shocked by his deeply rooted questions. More and more writers in today's film industry are beginning to pay attention to the loss of human nature under the impact of the material tide. "The Matrix", "28 Days Later", "Artificial Intelligence" and "The Good Man in Three Gorges" have all been mentioned more or less, but they are all mentioned. It cannot reach the philosophical heights of "Rashomon" 50 years ago. It is said that movies are entertainment, but Akira Kurosawa wrote a book full of philosophical speculations with movies. His western disciple Kubrick also agrees with the master's feelings, and his films are always full of deconstruction and reflection on human nature. "Rashomon" is not black to the end. In the original work of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's "Rashomon", the old woman's clothes are taken away, and the writer gives a pessimistic and desperate answer. But Akira Kurosawa finally gave a little hope at the end of the film. In the end of the story, the rain passed, and the woodcutter, who had been silent for a long time, took the abandoned baby from the wandering monk and decided to adopt it. The wandering monk expressed that there is still light and beauty in the world. Confidence. The setting of the wandering monk can be seen at a glance, he represents a kind of morality, a kind of philosophical thought that only Easterners can understand. The director's intention to use traditional morality to educate new and new human beings is also obvious, and with this kind of hopeful ending, the music becomes calm and beautiful, and the back of the woodcutter is also the audience's vision for a better future. An expectation and yearning. Babies are our future, the hope of mankind. As long as there is hope, then the future may be good. The master showed his compassion at the end, and we movie viewers should not indulge in this false infatuation, but should lead by example to think about our own value, and do our best to do sincere things. Movies can only explore the meaning of life, and only each person's actions have real value to life. In addition to the ideological advance, the technological breakthrough of "Rashomon" is also obvious, and its epoch-making significance is in no way inferior to Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane". This film is not only the first time in film history to walk into the forest to shoot, but also the first time to shoot directly at the sun. The technical experiment was successful, and we were fortunate to observe such a magnificent and charming "Rashomon". The main stories all take place under the mottled leaves, where light and shadow complement each other, just like the unpredictable and unknown human heart. Akira Kurosawa's mastery of moving camera positions is perfect, and in several scenes in the bamboo forest, there are few monotonous counter-attack shots, and instead are replaced by well-conceived camera moves. The movement of the character's perspective is not only natural, but also manages to overdo the emotions. In the 1950s, such a perfect combination of pictures and ideas could be achieved, no wonder the world fell for it. The cast of this film is also excellent. Toshiro Mifune, who has worked with Akira Kurosawa many times, is a legend in the Japanese film industry. This man, who was born on April Fool's Day and died on Christmas Eve, grew up in China and participated in the filming of a movie after returning to China. In this film, he performed Dajomaru, who seems to be arrogant but actually bears a bear, to a three-pointed point, and he grasped it just right with his laughter and scolding. After that, he won the Venice Best Actor twice with "Bodyguard" and "Redbeard", and together with Akira Kurosawa, he was known as "the international Kurosawa, the world's three ships". After the 1960s, Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa had a feud, and they never worked together again. It has to be said that it is a great regret in the film industry. In the excellent performance of "Rashomon", second only to Mifune is Kyoto Machiko, who plays Masha. She vividly performed the image of a humiliated woman who is sometimes strong, sometimes weak, and sometimes crazy. Kyo Machiko is known as the "best actress award", and has always been single since she took the stage. Mori Yayuki, who plays opposite Toshiro Mifune, is an elegant and handsome man in Akira Kurosawa's team. His calm and rational performance is in stark contrast to the indulgent and indulgent Toshiro Mifune, and is known as "Quiet Senya". He died of rectal cancer in 1973, and his daughter, Aoi Nakajima, was also an actress. In addition, Shimura Joe, who plays the woodcutter, and Chiaki Mi, who plays the monk, have also been active in the Japanese film industry. "Rashomon" shocked the world after its release, and won the Venice Golden Lion Award and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in succession the following year. Japanese movies shocked the world film industry, and "Rashomon" also put Kurosawa on the throne of film masters in one fell swoop. It has been ten years since the master left the world, and the birth of "Rashomon" is nearly sixty years old. Today's world is more and more mercenary, and even fewer people are dedicated to making movies. In an era when entertainment blockbusters are full of eyeballs, we need to calm down and enjoy movies like "Rashomon" often. Just like drinking Coke, you also need to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. "Rashomon" has such a peaceful and far-reaching feeling, which makes people save themselves and make people reminisce. Many people say that the movie "Rashomon" is a good movie to watch in a lifetime. Mistakes made in the bamboo forest cannot be overturned, so don't make such mistakes again in your life, the master is watching from heaven. In the excellent performance of "Rashomon", second only to Mifune is Kyoto Machiko, who plays Masha. She vividly performed the image of a humiliated woman who is sometimes strong, sometimes weak, and sometimes crazy. Kyo Machiko is known as the "best actress award", and has always been single since she took the stage. Mori Yayuki, who plays opposite Toshiro Mifune, is an elegant and handsome man in Akira Kurosawa's team. His calm and rational performance is in stark contrast to the indulgent and indulgent Toshiro Mifune, and is known as "Quiet Senya". He died of rectal cancer in 1973, and his daughter, Aoi Nakajima, was also an actress. In addition, Shimura Joe, who plays the woodcutter, and Chiaki Mi, who plays the monk, have also been active in the Japanese film industry. "Rashomon" shocked the world after its release, and won the Venice Golden Lion Award and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in succession the following year. Japanese movies shocked the world film industry, and "Rashomon" also put Kurosawa on the throne of film masters in one fell swoop. It has been ten years since the master left the world, and the birth of "Rashomon" is nearly sixty years old. Today's world is more and more mercenary, and even fewer people are dedicated to making movies. In an era when entertainment blockbusters are full of eyeballs, we need to calm down and enjoy movies like "Rashomon" often. Just like drinking Coke, you also need to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. "Rashomon" has such a peaceful and far-reaching feeling, which makes people save themselves and make people reminisce. Many people say that the movie "Rashomon" is a good movie to watch in a lifetime. Mistakes made in the bamboo forest cannot be overturned, so don't make such mistakes again in your life, the master is watching from heaven. In the excellent performance of "Rashomon", second only to Mifune is Kyoto Machiko, who plays Masha. She vividly performed the image of a humiliated woman who is sometimes strong, sometimes weak, and sometimes crazy. Kyo Machiko is known as the "best actress award", and has always been single since she took the stage. Mori Yayuki, who plays opposite Toshiro Mifune, is an elegant and handsome man in Akira Kurosawa's team. His calm and rational performance is in stark contrast to the indulgent and indulgent Toshiro Mifune, and is known as "Quiet Senya". He died of rectal cancer in 1973, and his daughter, Aoi Nakajima, was also an actress. In addition, Shimura Joe, who plays the woodcutter, and Chiaki Mi, who plays the monk, have also been active in the Japanese film industry. "Rashomon" shocked the world after its release, and won the Venice Golden Lion Award and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in succession the following year. Japanese movies shocked the world film industry, and "Rashomon" also put Kurosawa on the throne of film masters in one fell swoop. It has been ten years since the master left the world, and the birth of "Rashomon" is nearly sixty years old. Today's world is more and more mercenary, and even fewer people are dedicated to making movies. In an era when entertainment blockbusters are full of eyeballs, we need to calm down and enjoy movies like "Rashomon" often. Just like drinking Coke, you also need to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. "Rashomon" has such a peaceful and far-reaching feeling, which makes people save themselves and make people reminisce. Many people say that the movie "Rashomon" is a good movie to watch in a lifetime. Mistakes made in the bamboo forest cannot be overturned, so don't make such mistakes again in your life, the master is watching from heaven. It has been ten years since the master left the world, and the birth of "Rashomon" is nearly sixty years old. Today's world is more and more mercenary, and even fewer people are dedicated to making movies. In an era when entertainment blockbusters are full of eyeballs, we need to calm down and enjoy movies like "Rashomon" often. Just like drinking Coke, you also need to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. "Rashomon" has such a peaceful and far-reaching feeling, which makes people save themselves and make people reminisce. Many people say that the movie "Rashomon" is a good movie to watch in a lifetime. Mistakes made in the bamboo forest cannot be overturned, so don't make such mistakes again in your life, the master is watching from heaven. It has been ten years since the master left the world, and the birth of "Rashomon" is nearly sixty years old. Today's world is more and more mercenary, and even fewer people are dedicated to making movies. In an era when entertainment blockbusters are full of eyeballs, we need to calm down and enjoy movies like "Rashomon" often. Just like drinking Coke, you also need to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. "Rashomon" has such a peaceful and far-reaching feeling, which makes people save themselves and make people reminisce. Many people say that the movie "Rashomon" is a good movie to watch in a lifetime. Mistakes made in the bamboo forest cannot be overturned, so don't make such mistakes again in your life, the master is watching from heaven.
View more about Rashomon reviews
