Japanese cinema before and during World War II was dominated by films that conveyed the traditions of Japanese culture. At the end of World War II, however, the Allied occupation of Japan forced a change. The Allied censorship group worked tirelessly at eliminating any anti-democratic messages from media; this included film. All Japanese film making had to be rethought, and new approaches were thought up to deal with the restrictions that the film industry was facing. Also, for the first time, Japanese film makers and audiences were having the chance to experience American cinema. Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, Rashômon, became a turning point in Japanese cinema. The film was submitted to the Venice film festival. The Japanese were reluctant because they were concerned that the film would be misunderstood. Their fears were proven wrong, when Rashômon took home the Golden Lion and the film became recognized worldwide. After Rashômon, Japan became a major player in world cinema. Kurosawa went on to have a prolific career that spanned more than fifty years. His influence is not only incredibly apparent in Japanese cinema, but in many films from the West.
Rashômon is composed mostly of flashbacks. Three men and one woman, the bride, recall different versions of the same event, and we find that they are all equally unbelievable. The film has a very rich ethical and moral theme that does not overtly posit any specific position in regard to the events that take place. Rather, the film is meant to convey that morality and good are not concrete absolutes that are something higher and untouchable by man; instead these are subjective concepts. Each of the characters spins the story in a different way, and the REAL truth is never known to us or to the members of the court at which the crime is tried.
Kurosawa's cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, is amazing. He is one of the earliest photographers in film to almost constantly move the camera. I was sucked in at the beginning of the film, when the woodcutter is recalling the time when he found the body. There is a long sequence where he is just running through the woods; there are long tracking shots that follow him interleaved with tracking shots of the sun and light shining through the leaves. This was just a teaser, though, for some of the wonderful cinematography that was to come. There were a number times throughout the film that fluid motion of the camera was used to make a transition between two static shots. Rather than just shooting from both positions and editing it together, they decided to move the camera from one to the next. This is one technique in cinematography that I think was very influential, and it can be seen in a number of films from all times and places.
The film was also wonderfully edited. One sequence that stood out to me happened when the story as told by the spirit of the dead man, through a medium, was shown. Throughout the tale, we come back to the medium telling the story. The woman is dancing around and is extremely theatrical in her acting style (as were most of the characters in the film); the voice coming from her mouth was the voice of the dead man; and, as the story intensifies so too, does the editing. Each of the tales had a unique style. The last story, for instance, was the perspective of the woodcutter as he claims to have witnessed it, from cover. The majority of the shots from his tale were from the bushes, so we see it as he might have saw it.
This movie has definitely revitalized my interest in Kurosawa. Rather than pursuing some of his more contemporary films, like Kagemusha and Ran, as I had done before, I think I will try watching some of his earlier films. I would like to see a film of his that was very influential to westerns, Yojimbo. Yojimbo has been remade twice that I am aware of, once by the great spaghetti western director, Sergio Leone, through his film, A Fistful of Dollars, and later by American director, Walter Hill (director of the cult-classic The Warriors), through his film Last Man Standing. I am also interested in Stray Dog, because I would like to see his style at work in a different atmosphere.