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Rashomon: Themes in Japanese Cinema

Rashomon and Japanese cinema examines Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon through three main summaries: 1. It analyzes the film's content and story, which tells of a murdered samurai through varying witness testimonies at a gate. 2. It discusses the film's themes of human fallibility, gender relations, and the ambiguity of truth and representation. 3. It provides context on the film's production in postwar Japan and its exhibition, which brought Japanese cinema increased global recognition though the film initially flopped domestically.

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21 views8 pages

Rashomon: Themes in Japanese Cinema

Rashomon and Japanese cinema examines Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon through three main summaries: 1. It analyzes the film's content and story, which tells of a murdered samurai through varying witness testimonies at a gate. 2. It discusses the film's themes of human fallibility, gender relations, and the ambiguity of truth and representation. 3. It provides context on the film's production in postwar Japan and its exhibition, which brought Japanese cinema increased global recognition though the film initially flopped domestically.

Uploaded by

birdy_40
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Week 1

Rashomon and Japanese cinema

Friday, July 5, 2013

Lecture Outline

Content/Story/Plot Thematic currents Form Production and exhibition context Exhibition and cultural context National cinema

Friday, July 5, 2013

Content/Story/Plot
Story vs. Plot Story: A samurai has died, his lady and a bandit are captured; they and a woodcutter and priest are called to give testimony before a judiciary; these accounts are related in ashbacks to a commoner at a ruined gate. Plots: the framing narrative at the gate; each of the varying accounts Via Character Tajomaru Masako (Lady) Takehiro (Samurai) Woodcutter Priest Commoner

Friday, July 5, 2013

Thematics
Via Setting Late Heian Japan (794-1185); ruin City vs. Country; Court vs. Forest Human fallibility, sin, corruption... and hope? Gender contest; the grounds of patriarchal power Moral ambivalence; light and dark; dappled shadow Status of truth and representation 3 media of articulation: experience, witness, paranormal Subjective vision and self-preservation Political, verbal, cognitive vs. cinematic truth

Friday, July 5, 2013

Form, Style, Language


Composition; sets of 3: Spaces (Rashomon, Court, Forest Characters (Woodcutter/Priest/Commoner), (Bandit/Wife/Samurai) Geometrical design (pillars, trees, gures) Rhythm: structure, cuts, music Expressive camera postures and movements Non-verbal visual story-telling Long, kinetic tracks; short, restless shots Long still takes Experimentation and innovation Shoot the sun; mirrors; swishes, wipes, tilts
Friday, July 5, 2013

Production and exhibition context


Mid-century Japan Second Sino-Japanese war; Pacic War 1945-1952 Japanese surrender; pacist constitution, US occupation; Americanization High growth age 50s-70s centralized planning; cold war bulwark; 1964 Olympics Japanese Cinema 1899 early adoption; prolic industry; silent lm 1930s-40s: Mizoguchi, Ozu, and then Kurosawa Contemporary lm, historical lm, family melodrama Wartime centralization and propaganda; US occupation cultural pacication 1950s and 60s heterogeneous forms: monsters, samurais, gangsters, weepies, animation

Friday, July 5, 2013

Exhibition and cultural context

Rashomons real effect 1950 domestic op; 1951 Venice prize; 1952 Academy Award, etc. Japanese cinema on the world map Kurosawa on the Japanese map The most foreign of Japanese lmmakers Recognizable cultural icons, uncanny space Modern reection of the past The grounds of modernism: domestic vs. global High or low culture? Unidirectional global inuence Westerns; The Outrage

Friday, July 5, 2013

National cinema
Dening national cinema economic textual consumption criticism Problem: coherence vs. resistance New denitions: comparative internal Cultural identity? subject matter sensibility style

Friday, July 5, 2013

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