Product Details

• Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Fumiko Homma, Daisuke Kato, Machiko Kyo, Minoru Chiaki
• Directors: Akira Kurosawa
• Format: AC-3, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001BEK8E2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,229 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

RASHOMON:ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE - DVD Movie

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What happened -- and what didn't, June 21, 2008

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rashomon (DVD)

A man is dead, a woman was raped, and that's all that can be definitely said. Somebody has committed murder, but nobody knows whodunnit.

And that's the basic plot of Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," a hauntingly pessimistic look at how the "truth" can be warped and changed by different people's perspectives. It's a magnificently eerie piece of work, filled with suspense and some really astounding acting -- particularly from Toshiro Mifune as a laughing bandit.

At the Rashomon Gate in eleventh-century Japan, a man (Kichijiro Ueda) takes shelter with a priest (Minoru Chiaki) and a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) during a rainstorm.

The woodcutter is depressed and the priest is horrified, over a recent crime: the vicious bandit Tajômaru (Toshirô Mifune) was arrested for murdering a man named Takehiro (Masayuki Mori) and raping his wife Masako (Machiko Kyô). But when taken before the police, Tajômaru claims that he had his fun with the woman and killed her husband honorably in a fight.

But Masako begs to differ; she claims to be the victim first of the sadistic bandit, then of her cold-hearted husband, whom she says she stabbed. And when a medium calls up the spirit of Takehiro, he claims that Masako was unfaithful, asking the bandit to murder him, then spurned by Tajômaru. Her actions drove Takehiro to suicide. But the woodcutter himself claims to have seen the altercation -- and his version is wildly different from them all.

During the filming of "Rashomon," director Akira Kurosawa stated that the film is a reflection of life, which doesn't always have clear meanings. The same could be said of truth. Questions are raised by the events of "Rashomon," but given no easy answers -- sometimes no answers at all (my biggest question was how Masako's gown stays so white if she's always weeping on the ground).

Are Kurosawa's insights dark and depressing? In a fascinating, hypnotic way... yes. But while calmly pointing out the ability of human beings to lie even to themselves, he acknowledges that there's good in there too. The illusions and innocence of the young priest are stripped away, yet the knowledge of how despicable people can be is tempered with the knowledge that "real" truth isn't necessary to have goodness.

And Kurosawa's directorial skill is no less striking -- light and shadow whirl and dance in a frankly beautiful woodland setting, serving as a pretty backdrop for some very ugly acts. Kurosawa was even brave enough to touch on the unique idea of having the deceased testify. The spinechilling seance scene, starring a downright spooky, stark-faced Fumiko Honma, is a haunting classic scene.

And the masterful fight scenes deserve an extra shout-out -- they reflect the person telling the story. Tajomaru's are more stylized and choreographed, while the woodcutter just sees two freaked-out guys rolling and staggering with swords.

Toshirô Mifune chews the scenery with gusto as the barbarian bandit, especially with that crazy hyena laugh. Machiko Kyô initially seems to be overacting, until you see how unhinged her character has become, and Masayuki Mori does a pretty solid job for a guy tied to a tree. Minoru Chiaki and Takashi Shimura add an extra dimension as the innocent young priest and the tormented woodcutter.

Gloomy, thought-provoking and ultimately quite freaky, "Rashomon" still defies conventional filmmaking, brilliantly crafted and exceptionally directed. And that's the truth.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking Movie: Criterion Version - Without the Extras, August 7, 2010

By 

Erik Rupp (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rashomon (DVD)

Rashomon was the first movie where Akira Kurosawa really found his filmmaking voice.

Visually, Rashomon is stunning. The techniques used by Kurosawa were years ahead of their time. The outdoor filming, especially in the forest, gives the film an authenticity that you just can't get on a soundstage.

As far as the story goes, there is enough ambiguity to keep people discussing this movie for decades. Is it about lying? Distorted memories? People lying to themselves? Selfishness? Or is it about all of the above?

Kurosawa's story of a murder told from four different points of view that come across with distinctly different details is captivating. In the end we still aren't 100% sure exactly what happened, although we have a fairly good idea. Toshiro Mifune is, as he often is, over the top as the bandit. But being Toshiro Mifune over the top works extremely well. It comes across as genuine, and not just hammy acting. Mifune would take this performance and refine it further in Seven Samurai just four years later.

As for the Essential Art House DVD, it is the Criterion version without the extras. The picture quality is quite good, as the contrast is just about perfect, and the picture has a sharpness and clarity that is very pleasing. The sound doesn't fare quite so well, as there is a lot of hiss and crackling to be heard, but not so much as to be a deal breaker. The voices come through clearly, as does the rain and other forest sounds.

Why buy this version? Price. It is roughly half the cost of the fully loaded Criterion release, so that makes it a lot easier to make the purchase. Yes, the extras on the full Criterion version are quite good, but if you're on the fence about buying the movie this would be the one to get (especially if price is a major consideration).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking Classic That Still Transcends Time and Culture, July 4, 2011

By 

Fr. Charles Erlandson (Tyler, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rashomon (DVD)

Rashomon is one of the relatively few movies that truly deserves the name "classic." There are so many reasons why Rashomon is worth watching and so much has already been said about the movie, but here's my take. I watched it recently with my wife and my 16 and 15 year old kids, and I could tell that although it wasn't one my kids would have chosen, they understood that they were in the presence of something greater than the typical movie they've seen.

So why should you watch Rashomon?

1. It's a groundbreaking film. Many of Kurosawa's techniques were cutting edge at the time Rashomon was filmed. While this is one of the main reasons film critics give for rating movies highly, in my opinion it's not enough of a reason to call a movie great.

2. Great acting. Many moviegoers wouldn't recognize this as great acting because the culture and moviemaking are so different from what they're used to. The greatness of the acting is best seen in how each actor or actress has to adapt to fit the 4 versions of the same story. But even great acting isn't enough to make a great film for me.

3. Multiple perspectives and richness of meaning. We live in an age when we've come to expect that every story has multiple angles and no one right answer. I'd like to officially blame Rashomon for that. While the use of multiple perspectives has now become a common part of the grammar of cinema, with Rashomon it was revolutionary. The 4 different versions of the story not only create a deep layering effect on the question of what really happened but also create a sort of 3-D effect in terms of gaining some understanding of human nature. While Kurosawa's actors wanted to know which was the "real" story, the big K told them that no single one was correct. Even though, personally, this irks me just a little, the truth is that the movie reveals a lot about human nature.

4. The movie reveals a lot about human nature. Now here's perhaps the best reason for calling a movie great. This is also why great movies like Rashomon transcend time and culture. I'm a 21st century Christian in America watching a Japanese movie from 1950 set in an unspecified time. And while the multiple perspectives preclude knowing exactly what happened, Kurosawa still manages to communicate truth. I can't reduce the message of the movie to a moral, but suffice it to say that Rashomon leaves you with a strong sense of the evil of humanity but also with the possibility of redemption.

5. Great storytelling. What I noticed first about watching Rashomon with my kids was that the story sucked them in, and it did it without the following: rapid scene changes, a blaring soundtrack, lots of sound effects, rapid action, color film, noise that fills every crevice of the film's aural canvass, and a director who tells you exactly what to think and what he tells you to think is the same shallow, safe moralism - or anti-moralism and anti-heroism - that most movies offer. No, at the center of this story was a question: "What happened?" But the way the story was told and developed engrossed all of us.

I wish some grand experiment could be conducted on teenagers (and adults!) today and have millions of them all sit down and watch Rashomon. I'd like to see if perhaps, in spite of the usual pablum they serve themselves, they wouldn't catch a glimpse of a deeper world that is worth thinking about and worth thinking about long after the trance induced by the movie had worn off.