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Examples

  • In fact, it's actually an ancient Japanese form of storytelling called rashomon, where you see a story from several points of view and you find out each person's truth about what that story is...

    Is ‘Vantage Point’ A Gimmick Flick? The Stars Respond » MTV Movies Blog 2008

  • . .wikipediaing. . . oh. i still don't get it. was he in "rashomon"?

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008

  • anyone who has learned to appreciate "the greats" didn't start out loving movies because they watched "rashomon" or "seven samurai" as a child. and they certainly weren't sneaking in to see the ingmar bergman film festival in hopes of seeing the best of what european filmmakers had to offer.

    John Hughes Will Receive His Own Tribute During the Oscars « FirstShowing.net 2010

  • But i would still love to read your detailed deconstructions of movies like taxi driver, breathless, psycho, rashomon, godfather, pulp fiction, etc. - movies about which everything that needs to be said have apparently already been said by the numerous film critics - just to know what are your personal views & dissections about these universally acknowledged films.

    The Nun Ed Howard 2008

  • The ability to swarm on an important or interesting event lets you form a rashomon and blind men with elephant composite view.

    Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » moblogging meets kblogging 2003

  • I agree with you, rashomon, about your depiction of Allen as a junior high school bully.

    Redskins Insider Podcast -- The Washington Post 2010

  • Pedicab rashomon: At the end of the Hudson River Park Trust's board of directors meeting last month there was a lengthy discussion of pedicabs after Marc Ameruso, former chairperson of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, mentioned that family members of Arthur Schwartz, the advisory council's current chairperson, recently had been "hit by a pedicab" on the park's bike path.

    unknown title 2009

  • Gerson rashomon: Councilmember Alan Gerson not only lost Downtown Independent Democrats 'endorsement two weeks ago but he also had his cell phone thrown against the wall by club member Gil Horowitz after breaking up an argument Horowitz was having with Gerson's mother,

    unknown title 2009

  • Gerson rashomon: Councilmember Alan Gerson not only lost Downtown Independent Democrats 'endorsement two weeks ago but he also had his cell phone thrown against the wall by club member Gil Horowitz after breaking up an argument Horowitz was having with Gerson's mother,

    unknown title 2009

  • Pedicab rashomon: At the end of the Hudson River Park Trust's board of directors meeting last month there was a lengthy discussion of pedicabs after Marc Ameruso, former chairperson of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, mentioned that family members of Arthur Schwartz, the advisory council's current chairperson, recently had been "hit by a pedicab" on the park's bike path.

    unknown title 2009

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  • It seems fitting to use, or rather "mis-use," the term Rashomon as a reference to the postmodernist deconstruction of truth. When filmmaker, Kurosawa, produced the 1950's film of the same title, he obscured the literary genius of Ryunosuke Akutagawa while making his works available to a wider non-Japanese audience. Akutagawa's (1892-1927) short story collection, Rashomon and Other Stories, was first translated into English in 1952. In it, there were included two stories, one titled, "Rashomon" and the other, "In a Grove." It was the latter that created the narrative framework for the film.

    "In a Grove" contains the story of a death—at least that much can be agreed upon. A man and his wife, traveling through a forest grove, encounter a bandit. This encounter ultimately leaves the man dead, either by his own hand, his wife's or the bandit's. Akutagawa presents this core narrative through seven voices, each offering a different and conflicting first person account of the event. These multiple voices are never resolved and the reader is left questioning which account is "true."

    In the same collection of stories, Akutagawa reveals in the story "Rashomon," much about life in feudal Japan. Rashomon was a gate in Kyoto, once grand and majestic, now dilapidated and a place frequented by beggars and other misfortunates, some who breathe their last breath at that site. Once such soul finds himself at the gate during a torrential rainstorm having just been released from his position as a servant. Jobless, homeless, he seeks refuge at Rashomon and contemplates his dismal future. As he considers turning to a life of crime, he encounters a wretch of a woman. Poor, filthy, ugly—she frequents this place seeking dead bodies from whose heads she cuts hair to be sold and made into wigs. He watches her begin to cut the hair of a dead woman. Disgusted by this, the servant is made to see that his decision to become a thief would reduce him to that same level or worse—a revelation that allows him to experience a moment of grace. But this grace is fleeting when the woman attempts to justify her act by sharing how despicable her victim was. With this, she creates a mirrored invitation for the servant, for he uses her justification as an imperative for him to steal, in turn, from her.

    The film conflates these two tales (and hints of the other stories) into one. Its acclaim at international film festivals upon its release was seen, in part, due to its non-linear, non-rational challenge to American/Western sensibilities. In the film version, the story of the murder in the forest is discussed by a priest and a key witness who recount the multiple versions that were retold at the trial. This meta-level retelling occurs as a sort of rapprochement where Kurosawa's witness is brought together from two figures, one from each of these tales (the servant and the woodcutter). The Gate becomes the site for telling of the tales of the murder and trial as well as the Woodcutter/Servant's confrontation with questions of truth and moral choice.

    Those unfamiliar with the movie's origins are left with what appears to be a single story. Thus, the term Rashomon has come to mean that truth has many voices, all relative, subjective and open to deconstruction. A full reading of Akutagawa's works, however, provides a thicker description, where Rashomon reveals, not only the subjectivity of truth, but also the effects of its epistemic nature.

    July 11, 2009