2 posts tagged “samurai”
This latest movie teaches us the lesson of understanding that everyone lies sometimes.
Rashomon is, at its core, a whodunit. A murder takes place - a body is discovered in the woods, the police are called and those involved are rounded up to give their testimonies as to what happened.
There's an infamous bandit who gets arrested, the wife of the victim who is found hiding in a temple and the person who ran to the police after coming across the body.
So the entire movie is each of them giving their testimonies. Boring, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out that the three stories that get told are all different. In one, the man dies in a duel. In another, the wife kills the man. In yet another, the man kills himself. So who is telling the truth?
One of the most affecting details of this movie is the fact that all of the action takes place in a forest somewhere. There are trees everywhere, which obscure the action at times, and it seems crowded. This, to me, gives the story kind of an other-worldly feeling. Nothing is recognizable, it's all just anonymous woods somewhere. Not to sound pretentious or come across as snooty, but it kind of reminded me of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where people are just wandering around in the woods.
Many people regard this as one of Kurosawa's pinnacle films, along with Seven Samurai. And I agree with them. It's not a normal samurai flick where there's a noble, honorable samurai trying to make the world a better place. In this one, everyone's got a motivation, and everyone's hiding something.
Rashomon is, at its core, a whodunit. A murder takes place - a body is discovered in the woods, the police are called and those involved are rounded up to give their testimonies as to what happened.
There's an infamous bandit who gets arrested, the wife of the victim who is found hiding in a temple and the person who ran to the police after coming across the body.
So the entire movie is each of them giving their testimonies. Boring, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out that the three stories that get told are all different. In one, the man dies in a duel. In another, the wife kills the man. In yet another, the man kills himself. So who is telling the truth?
One of the most affecting details of this movie is the fact that all of the action takes place in a forest somewhere. There are trees everywhere, which obscure the action at times, and it seems crowded. This, to me, gives the story kind of an other-worldly feeling. Nothing is recognizable, it's all just anonymous woods somewhere. Not to sound pretentious or come across as snooty, but it kind of reminded me of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where people are just wandering around in the woods.
Many people regard this as one of Kurosawa's pinnacle films, along with Seven Samurai. And I agree with them. It's not a normal samurai flick where there's a noble, honorable samurai trying to make the world a better place. In this one, everyone's got a motivation, and everyone's hiding something.
I'm really enjoying my recent kick of samurai flicks I've been watching. And with this one it only gets better.
Much like the Kurosawa films from roughly the same period, The Sword of Doom tells the tale of samurai in perfect chronology. As a period piece, it's amazing.
But there's a difference between this one and the Kurosawas.
The Sword of Doom is about an errant samurai, Ryunosuke, who gets kicked out of his school for being just plain evil. It is said that a samurai's fencing style mirrors his own soul. Evil soul, evil sword. And this is very much true here. After getting booted from his school, he plays a match with a rival from the same school, which ends in his opponent's death.
He takes the widow as his own woman, unmarried (a no-no in feudal Japan), and joins various gangs to keep himself busy. Basically, he just likes to kill people. Meanwhile, his dead opponent's brother is tracking him down to seek vengeance.
The big difference here, what makes this film different, is that not only is the main character evil, but it's a samurai. It's pretty much the first time an evil samurai has been depicted on film. Usually, they are noble and honorable.
The ending is fun, as well. Eventually, he goes crazy and is haunted by all the ghosts of the people he's killed in the past, so he starts slashing at the walls with his sword. And then, the gangs he's currently associated with turns on him and ambush him where he's staying. There's a 20-minute sequence where he's just killing people left and right, getting jabbed at here and there. And then, the film ends - right there. No resolution.
A perfect idea of the eternal hell he's no doubt going to experience in the afterlife.
Much like the Kurosawa films from roughly the same period, The Sword of Doom tells the tale of samurai in perfect chronology. As a period piece, it's amazing.
But there's a difference between this one and the Kurosawas.
The Sword of Doom is about an errant samurai, Ryunosuke, who gets kicked out of his school for being just plain evil. It is said that a samurai's fencing style mirrors his own soul. Evil soul, evil sword. And this is very much true here. After getting booted from his school, he plays a match with a rival from the same school, which ends in his opponent's death.
He takes the widow as his own woman, unmarried (a no-no in feudal Japan), and joins various gangs to keep himself busy. Basically, he just likes to kill people. Meanwhile, his dead opponent's brother is tracking him down to seek vengeance.
The big difference here, what makes this film different, is that not only is the main character evil, but it's a samurai. It's pretty much the first time an evil samurai has been depicted on film. Usually, they are noble and honorable.
The ending is fun, as well. Eventually, he goes crazy and is haunted by all the ghosts of the people he's killed in the past, so he starts slashing at the walls with his sword. And then, the gangs he's currently associated with turns on him and ambush him where he's staying. There's a 20-minute sequence where he's just killing people left and right, getting jabbed at here and there. And then, the film ends - right there. No resolution.
A perfect idea of the eternal hell he's no doubt going to experience in the afterlife.
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