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"Rashomon"
Akira Kurosawa's 1950 "Rashomon" is the best-known Japanese
film in the world. Set in the 11th century, the movie opens with
a woodcutter, a priest, and a commoner sheltering from torrential
rain in an immense dilapidated wooden structure. This structure,
known as Rashomon gate, marks one of the approaches to Kyoto. As
the three men wait for the weather to improve, they talk about a
legal proceeding stemming from an incident involving a possible
murder. A samurai was found dead, and the circumstances surrounding
his death are shown from four conflicting points of view. I believe
that no matter how many times you watch this film, there's not enough
information in the movie to figure out the truth about what took
place on the day of the samurai's death, but for me, "Rashomon"
isn't about searching for some kind of absolute truthit's
about how differently people perceive the same external event.
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