# In "Rashomon" did the husband testify? (and other paranomal events in non-paranormal films) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387 "2012-09-11T12:24:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/1 "2012-09-11T12:24:36Z")
In _Rashomon_ one of the scences is a medium testifying in court on behalf of a dead man There are no other paranormal scenes, and no explicit demonstration she is indeed channeling his spirit, rather than lying or deluded. In _Rashomon_ I choose to take it at face value that they are the words of the husband as the plot is better if you accept it as his. I can’t think of any other (basically) non-paranormal film where I accept a paranormal scene, that has a much-more likely real world explanation, as paranormal. In _Rashomon_, are they the words of the husband or the medium? What other films have this dichotomy, and how do you generally resolve them in your head? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/2 "2012-09-11T12:43:43Z")
Such supernatural things appear more often in Asian literature than in the West. The original Judge Dee novel, titled by its translator Robert Hand Van Guklik the [i[Dee Goong An\* has such a scene with a ghost giving evidence. The novel is an 18th century Chinese novel about a T’and dynasty historical figure. When van Gulik began writing his own novels about Judge Dee he composed them by taking elements from old Chinese mysteries, but was careful to either avoid such outright supernatural elements or to provide them with enough ambiguity that the reader could read them as a rational, possible event or a supernatural one. That, I suspect, is your average Western reader’s interpretation and feeling about this (I think, in other words, that van Gulik hjudged his audience accurately). It’s also pretty clear to me that Kurasawa meant for the audience to take the spirit evidence as the word of the murdered man. So that’s how I take it. It’s been too long since I read “In a Grove”, the short story that _Rashomon_ is based on, to recall if it’s in there. According to the Wikipedia account, the spirit evidence is, indeed, in there (Kurasawa invented the woodcutter’s account), so the spirit evidence has always been an integral part of the story (which first appeared in 21922) > **[In a Grove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Grove)** > > In a Grove (藪の中, Yabu no naka), also translated as In a Bamboo Grove, is a Japanese short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa first published in 1922. It was ranked as one of the "10 best Asian novels of all time" by The Telegraph in 2014. In a Grove has been adapted several times, most notably by Akira Kurosawa for his award-winning 1950 film Rashōmon. > The story centers on the violent death of young samurai Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose body has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. The preceding ev... ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/3 "2012-09-11T12:50:19Z")
The characters discussing the events believe that the medium was indeed channelling the dead husband. The characters’ conflicted feelings draw just as much from the medium’s account of events as from the wife’s account and the bandit’s account. The characters don’t doubt the medium. The story being told to us, the film audience, isn’t about the bandit, the samurai, and his wife- it is about the three people at Rashōmon gate and how they are affected by the recent local trial. So all that matters is that they do believe the medium was speaking for the dead samurai. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/4 "2012-09-11T16:07:50Z")
Couldn’t _Hamlet_ be considered another example of this? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/5 "2012-09-11T18:39:20Z")
The movie “Crossroads” with Ralph Macchio and Jon Seneca. It is about a young musician studying music at Juliard (or some similar school) but who really wants to be a classic “bluesman.” He finds a forgotten bluesman in an old folks home and tries to get him to teach him how to play the blues. The old man, haunted by nightmares, relents if the kid will help him make the trip downsouth to the “crossroads” where he claims he sold his soul to the devil. It’s a road movie and you’re not quite sure if the old man is just scamming the kid for the ride or if he’s actually trying to help him. There’s nothing supernatural in the movie at all (the nightmares are even presented as nightmares)…UNTIL the climax which is LITERALLY Ralph Macchio versus the devil (technically the Devil’s proxy played by guitarist Steve Vai) for the soul of the old man. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/6 "2012-09-11T19:05:57Z")
> **[Pathfinder (1987) ⭐ 7.2 | Action, Adventure, Drama](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093668/)** > > 1h 26m In _Ofelas_ (U.S. title _Pathfinder_), one of the major characters is a shaman. He makes predictions, and they come true. Maybe he is clairvoyant. Maybe he is just old and wise. He casts spells to attack the bad guys. (Of course, the spell usually consists of a prayer to the spirits to lead the bad guys into the trap he is setting in their path.) In one scene, he commands all of the tribe to behave in a certain way, lest an angry spirit attack them. They comply, and no harm comes. You spend the rest of the movie wondering what would have happened if someone had broken the taboo. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/7 "2012-09-11T23:30:55Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Couldn’t _Hamlet_ be considered another example of this? I’d think so. Other Shakespeare plays too – _Julius Caesar_, for instance, has not only the soothsayer, but Calpurnia’s dream and a host of reported portents on the night before Caesar’s assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/8 "2012-09-12T00:30:16Z")
And in at least some productions of _Henry VIII_, Catherine has a vision of the other wives shortly before she dies. In TV shows, though, this sort of hint of the paranormal is a dime a dozen, especially in Christmas episodes where it turns out that Santa is real, or a real angel does the whole George Bailey thing. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rashomon-did-the-husband-testify-and-other-paranomal-events-in-non-paranormal-films/634387/9 "2012-09-12T02:32:45Z")
I think the narrative of Rashomon makes a lot more sense (and is more compelling) if we assume the channeling is real. Always struck me as the oddest element of the film.