Rashomon

Kurasowa's masterpiece of … anticipation. Virtually everything in the direction and storytelling in this work is built to generate a sense of unbridled anticipation in the viewer; you’re always looking to see what’s going to happen next. That may sound like a moviemaking universal, but as an operative concept it rarely springs to life to this extent. The story and its presentation are top notch, to be sure, and the narrative—or narratives, if you will—firmly hold the audience’s attention throughout. So there’s certainly success. Then again, this style of storytelling shares--indeed, by reputation, you could say it created--the problem other variable perspective tales (such as the recent The Last Duel) offer the viewer, even if, in this film's case, it introduces the variable deliberately; to wit: why believe one narrative is more truthful than the others? It may not be a problem here--Kurasowa seems to understand that there is no real "truth"--but this model sure has spawned a lot of problematic cinema in subsequent decades. More specifically problematic here, unless you’re Japanese or intimately familiar with the culture—and let’s face it, most of us aren’t—a lot of key aspects of motivation in this multichannel story are subtly lost, and that can make for some distraction and confusion. The complaint may be a quibble—this is undeniably a good and memorable film--but it nevertheless is there and it's real, and it has an impact on the viewer. So then, is this one of the greatest movies ever? That’s a stretch too far for this viewer. The truth--subjective, as always--is that this is a very good film, and worth watching.