# Rashomon: THIS is what they are talking about! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782 "2009-11-08T06:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/1 "2009-11-08T06:20:21Z")
I’m less than five minutes in and I already understand its wonderfulness. Yeah, I can see it. To be frank, novels also need to prove themselves this quickly or I drop them. My time is limited and my attention span leaves my time checking its watch as it waits at the station. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/2 "2009-11-08T06:27:15Z")
(pausing some 9 minutes in) THIS is some of greatest camera work I’ve ever seen! Before it was a joke on The Simpsons I got, but didn’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/3 "2009-11-08T06:36:11Z")
17 minutes in and I understand. Please pardon me for questioning conventional wisdom. ETA: It’s working on being the greatest movie I ever saw, though that’s not how I remember it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/4 "2009-11-08T06:42:47Z")
This movie is perfect. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/5 "2009-11-08T12:35:28Z")
That’s not how I remember it. (oh, come on, I had to.) Seriously, Dropzone, this thread is just… perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_I\_Was](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Sam\_I\_Was](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_I_Was)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/6 "2009-11-08T12:37:38Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > This movie is perfect. It’s truly a breathtaking work. I’m still hard-pressed to find a movie that even comes close to matching the complexity created out of such a simple incident. Kurosawa stands as my favorite director. His body of work, though not as polished as I would say Kubrick’s attained, reached depths that I don’t believe I’ve seen anywhere else. To be sure, the performances of Shimura and Mifune elevate every other aspect of many of his films. I especially enjoy movies that emphasize their performances together. For more of those, I might suggest checking out _Seven Samurai_ and _Drunken Angel_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/7 "2009-11-08T17:27:24Z")
How can you say it’s a good movie? Look at all the continuity errors! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/8 "2009-11-08T17:28:52Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > That’s not how I remember it. Don’t worry about it. It isn’t as if men were reasonable. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/9 "2009-11-08T17:33:14Z")
You probably haven’t reached this point yet, but this movie contains my all-time favorite sword-fighting scene. I suspect it may also be the most _realistic_ sword-fighting scene ever committed to film. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/10 "2009-11-08T17:38:56Z")
One of the first movies I bought on DVD 😃 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/11 "2009-11-08T20:11:22Z")
I quite agree as to the second swordfight. But… who has the sword at the end, and do they have a reason to lie about it? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/12 "2009-11-08T20:20:09Z")
It was on TV at some ungodly hour and I asked my father to record it. He and Mom decided to watch it with me, basically to see what the big deal was about. It was in Japanese, with English subtitles which I translated into Spanish. At one point, spoilered for those who haven’t seen the movie, my father said [spoiler]“What about the dead man’s version? We’re missing the dead man’s version!” It wasn’t the next version to come up, but it does, indeed, eventually come up. At that point we had to stop the video until we could stop laughing.[/spoiler] ---
**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:** [November 9, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rashomon-this-is-what-they-are-talking-about/516782/13 "2009-11-09T00:05:33Z")
_Rashomon_ was later turned into a stage play (which I’ve never seen) and a Western(as other Kurasawa films were). It was _The Outrage_, and it starred a wonderfully weird cast – William Shatner, Howard da Silva (Ben Franklin!), Edward G. Robinson (!), Clair Bloom, and Paul Newman as a Mexican (!!) – the Toshiro Mifune role. I’d dearly like to see it. If you can, get hold of the Grove Press edition of the script =-it contains the tw stories by Akutagawa that inspired the film, along with some very perceptive essays. And a look at The Outrage. > **[Rashomon (1950) ⭐ 8.2 | Crime, Drama, Mystery](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/)** > > 1h 28m | Not Rated > **[The Outrage (1964) ⭐ 6.2 | Crime, Drama, Western](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058437/)** > > 1h 36m | Approved > **[Rashomon: Kurosawa, Akira: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Rashomon-Akira-Kurosawa/dp/B0026BYGZQ)** > > Rashomon \[Kurosawa, Akira:\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Rashomon