This is a Japanese film set in 9th century Japan that raises questions and gives you too many answers.  I had heard about it for a long time, so I decided to watch it.  The story should be simple; a murder, a rape and someone who did it.  Not so.  A firewood dealer, a priest and a traveler sitting out a rainstorm in a collapsed temple discuss the event. Four separate and different versions of what happened are related using flashbacks, by the bandit, the woman, the firewood dealer and the murdered man. 

        Akutagawa Ryunosuke wrote two original short stories, Rashomon and In a Grove in 1915 and 1921 respectively.  They were combined in this 83-minute, B & W film called Rashomon released in 1950.  It won an award at the Venice film festival and an honorary Academy Award in the U.S.  The director, Akira Kurosawa, also directed The Seven Samurai and Ran.

        Today it s hard to imagine that the scenery on this old videotape with blurry visuals and scratchy sound caused rave reviews in 1950, referring to it as a beautiful art film.  The background music sounds like a hacked up version of Ravel's Bolero during some of the scenes and the forest birds repeat themselves in an endless loop of peeping.  The dubbed English voice-over is a little distracting also.

        However the story line quickly moves past these impediments.  You begin to wonder about truth because all these different stories are believable.  Who should be trusted?  And of course the characters are having the same problem. 

        I believe the theme is about faith and trust and the relationship between them.  I think the broken temple symbolizes the breakdown of faith and trust.  But this is not your everyday easy-to-dissect film.  You might watch it and perceive something different.  And isn't that ironic, because that's exactly what the film is about, i.e. four different versions of the same event.  And don't we also each see things from the perspective of our different personalities, experiences and belief systems?

        Faith and trust are resolved at the end of the film by a final quixotic event.  But I'll let you discover that for yourself. 

        I recently read that this film is now available on DVD.  If available, it should be in better shape than the tape I watched.