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Rashomon: Akira Kurusawa's Greatest Creation


Rashomon is a Japanese term that refers to a scenario where we analyze a scenario or an incident with different perspectives and viewpoints. As a noun, it stands for a large gate that once stood at the southern end of Suzaku Avenue, between modern day Kyoto and Nara. The characters it's written with literally mean "the castle gate". The short story and film sharing its name are so called because that is where they take place. Yes, Rashomon, the film is based on a short story written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and stars Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo. When Akira decided to helm this feature film, no production house in his home country Japan was ready to undertake it for everyone of them thought that this is too western a product to suit for Japanese moviegoers' appetite. It's story was one of the most unconventional and possibly controversial too in 50s Japan but Daiei Film, the biggest movie production house in Japan finally submitted to Kurusawa's conviction who was already an established name in Japanese feature film industry. When Rashomon the Film released in Japan, the reaction of critics was predictable. They simply rejected Kurusawa's unconventional storyplay and narration technique. Audience reaction was more astounding for they were always supportive of Kurusawa's film in past but West who everyone thought would like and probably love this film took notice of it via its fortunate screening in Venice Film Festival of 1951. Radio RKO Pictures, a Hollywood studio, decided to screen it in all of USA in both subtitled and dubbed versions and American and European critics lauded unanimously Kurusawa's brilliance and vision as a 'prodigiously gifted natural filmmaker'. It went on to win the 'Academy Award for a film not shot in English Language' in 1952 and that pretty much sealed its glory. Today Rashomon stands as arguably one of the greatest films ever made in history of feature films.

I first came across Rashomon when I was searching the list of greatest films ever made on Google during my MBA 2nd trimester and since Roger Ebert was pretty much my go-to guru and film critic for great movies' selection, I had my eyes set on this Kurusawa's epic. America loved Kurusawa and when he went onto make some more all-time classics in 'Ikiru', 'Seven Samurai', 'Yojimbu', 'Kagemusha' and 'Ran', his immortal legacy was established in world cinema forever. Publications such as TIME, CNN and AsianWeek named him as one of the most important important personalities who shaped 20th Century Asia through their indelible influence. Moreover, Kurusawa was a very humble man and he loved our Satyajit Ray and commented that 'The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly. … I feel that he is a “giant” of the movie industry. Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon. I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it (Pather Panchali). It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river.' Then I also watched last year's Meghna Gulzar's film 'Talwar'. It had 'Rashomon effect' written all over it. An average viewer simply didn't get the logic of the movie for they watched and listened to three narrations of central characters of a perpetrated murder. They didn't understand it but learned critics knew what they just got to see. Talwar was a brilliant film and it was a drama in guise of a thriller. If it were upto me, I would recommend everyone to watch Kurusawa's Rashomon for at least once in their lifetimes. I would still do that regardless. However, if you decided to give a shot to all of Kurusawa's classics, believe me, only you are gonna get benefited from it. You will learn the vaunted secrets of humanity and that only would do enough.......#Adios...#Rashomon.....#KurusawaForever

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