Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and the Many Faces of Reality

I used to love the Indian courtroom television show Adaalat (2010-2016). I would watch K.D. Pathak take on one case after another and I found it interesting how different witnesses would describe the same incident in completely different ways. You could never be quite sure which version was true and which was a lie. I would find myself trying to guess who the real culprit was. Later, when I began discovering world cinema, I was reminded of those childhood memories of Adaalat while watching Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) psychological mystery film Rashomon (1950) by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is that rare film that has transcended its own status as a film, influencing not just the moving image but culture at large. Rashomon is a cinematic adaptation of In a Grove (1922), a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, with the title and framing story taken from Akutagawa’s Rashōmon (1915). When Rashomon won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 1951, it introduced Akira Kurosawa’s unconventional and revolutionary storytelling to international audiences. At the time, Kurosawa’s use of non-linear storytelling, unreliable narrators and dynamic cinematography was groundbreaking. This movie is now considered one of the greatest films ever made and among the most influential movies of the 20th century.

Rashomon remains essential viewing for filmmakers and film enthusiasts. Kurosawa’s exploration of truth and its expression in the film later inspired a term that would be used both in and outside of cinema: the Rashomon Effect. This is the greatest legacy of this film. It is a phenomenon describing the unreliability of eyewitness accounts, with various characters providing subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. It is a rare storytelling term that has been used as both a storytelling and analytical concept, where an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

Rashomon popularised the idea that would later become known as the “Rashomon Effect.” It is important to understand the plot of Rashomon to understand the concept. Rashomon occurs under a gigantic gate named Rashōmon near Kyoto during a time of social crisis—in this case, the eleventh century in Japan, a period that Kurosawa uses to reveal the complexities of human behavior. Its daring, nonlinear approach to narrative shows the details of the crime as they are related through the memories and testimonies of those involved.

The film opens with three men: a priest, a commoner and a woodcutter taking shelter from a storm under the Rashōmon Gate in Kyoto. They are discussing the story of how the woodcutter found the body of a slain Samurai in the forest three days prior. Then the murder is described through multiple contradictory testimonies. Every element is largely identical. A bandit was accused of murdering the Samurai and raping the Samurai’s wife. The woodcutter, the priest, the Samurai’s wife, the bandit and even the murdered Samurai, speaking through a Miko (Shinto medium), all give their versions of what happened. Later, the woodcutter gives another version, making it even harder to understand what really happened.

However, each testimony of the event is different and contradictory. Everyone presents an image of themselves shaped by pride, fear, memory and self-interest. The film ends ambiguously, without providing a simple resolution of what actually occurred. Reality is something we experience, and each of us may experience it differently. A person may genuinely believe their version of events. If everyone were consciously lying, then it would be easy to find the liar. But everyone is presenting what they believe to be their own version of reality, and it is this uncertainty that makes Rashomon so disturbing.

Rashomon’s nonlinear narrative marked it as a decisively modernist work and as part of the emerging world art cinema that was transforming the medium in the 1950s. Rashomon was more than just commercial entertainment. It was a film of ideas with a sophisticated aesthetic design. The Rashōmon Gate itself is portrayed almost as a character, lashed by rain and isolated in darkness. Then, the character of the commoner was introduced, whose role is to skeptically question all versions of the incident in a dialogue under that gate.

The film’s visual imagery went far beyond the innovative technique of cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. The camera does not show us what objectively happened. It shows us someone’s version of what happened. We often search for truth somewhere between certainty and uncertainty, between the black and white of Rashomon. The more we look at it, the more complicated it becomes. Over time, the simplicity within the complexity of Rashomon has added new prisms.

Several prominent filmmakers have drawn on Kurosawa’s Rashomon-style storytelling to explore their own stories through multiple perspectives, unreliable narrators, fragmented memories and contradictory accounts, making audiences question what they initially believe. The Outrage (1964), directed by Martin Ritt, is one of the most direct adaptations of Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Besides, Hero (2002), directed by Zhang Yimou, Vantage Point (2008), directed by Pete Travis and The Last Duel (2021), directed by Ridley Scott, use the Rashomon idea by presenting different versions of the same event and questioning the nature of truth. These films demonstrate the continuing influence of the Rashomon idea on cinematic storytelling.

Rashomon’s Golden Lion victory was a watershed moment and helped introduce international audiences to Japanese cinema. It was the film that brought Akira Kurosawa worldwide recognition. His film therefore speaks directly to contemporary problems surrounding truth, memory, perception and information. The film found success because of its unconventional, even radical design, yet engaging story, with the characters repeatedly reshaping the same event through their own perspectives and exploring a common human experience. The film explores the quest for truth, which becomes complicated by deception, ego and vanity.

Kurosawa’s own comments emphasized the human inability to be completely honest with oneself. Memory, perception and self-image are subjective. Also, truth can become mixed with our desire to protect ourselves. This makes Rashomon more than a murder mystery. It is a film about ego. The crime becomes almost secondary to the psychological mechanism behind the testimonies.

There are many more reasons why, more than 70 years after its initial release, you might want to return to the landmark of cinema history that is Rashomon. Rashomon is particularly important in understanding unreliable narratives in both cinema and everyday life. The film feels particularly relevant in today’s post-truth era, when facts can become entangled with personal beliefs, emotions, selective memories and competing interpretations of events. In the age of social media, digital news, manipulated videos, artificial intelligence-generated content, misinformation and rapidly spreading personal narratives, people are increasingly exposed to different versions of the same event. Two people can witness the same incident and remember it differently, while photographs, videos or online posts can also be selectively edited and interpreted according to individual beliefs.

Rashomon reminds us that truth is not always easy to separate from memory, perspective and personal desire. The film does not give us the comfort of a simple answer but asks us to examine our own relationship with truth. Its ending suggests that Rashomon is not simply a murder mystery or a film about conflicting stories, nor does it suggest that truth is impossible or that everyone is lying; rather, it shows how memory, perception and self-interest can distort truth. It is a profound exploration of human nature and the difficulty of knowing the truth. Even when absolute truth is difficult to establish, human beings can still choose compassion, responsibility and moral action. Rashomon is timeless because it teaches us to question our own perceptions of truth.

Kabbo Kabir is a filmmaker, screenwriter and film student from JnU.

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