Toan Khanh Le

JAPAN/CINE 280

S. Kawana (PI)

First scene Analysis: Works of Kurosawa Akira

How lighting bring a symbolism and meaning in Rashomon scenes

In the very first, Rashomon has a revolutionary storyline for world cinema when it refers

to a specific incident, the murdering case through the fictitious of 4 different characters, a way to

build a “fake truth” view into the art of feel by Kurosawa. The honesty of each story is given by

him to give the audience more the freedom of choices, so that each viewer will have their own

story that would reflect themselves thinking.

At the dilapidated temple of Rashomon under intense rain, a woodcutter and a monk told the

guests in turn raining with them the brutal case that they witnessed and witnessed. According to

the woodcutter, during the firewood inspection he accidentally discovered the body of a samurai

killed with a sword, next to a few traces of a woman, the woodcutter was too frightened by the

crime scene and Immediately go to press the case. According to the monk, he saw the samurai

and the woman go together on the day of the murder. Incidentally when two people sentenced, a

notorious robber, Tajomaru, was also arrested. According to this guy, it was he who tricked the

samurai into the forest and tied him up in order to rape his wife and admitted that; later killed the
samurai but was at the request of the woman. In stark contrast to Tajomaru's account, the

samurai's wife admitted that it was she who killed her husband because he was so scared by the

cold eyes of her husband looking at her after the assault. The victim himself also manifested

through the medium to say that he himself committed suicide because he was too miserable after

hearing his wife suggest that Tajomaru kill her husband to follow the bandit.

When describing the scene of woodcutter entering the forest, to signal an impending event, the

camera moves in the footsteps of the character, shooting from many angles: from above to

below, from the bottom up, causing us to It feels like the woodcutter is being watched by an

invisible eye. The scene of robbers and boxers running into the deep forest is also depicted with

high-speed camera moving, vibrating, rotating from the front, back, and above, depicting the

excited state of two characters: the agitated samurai. out of curiosity at the antiques promised by

the bandit, the bandit was excited to lure the swordsman into a trap. Particularly impressive in

this film are scenes where the young lady, the bandit, and the victim of murder are all filmed by

pointing the lens straight at the character, allowing them to appear close-up and face to face. This

shot feels like the audience is the judge listening to the witnesses.

The art of light processing in movies is very impressive. Kurosawa has thoroughly shot with

natural light. When the scenes in the forest were difficult because of the thick trees, the sunlight

was difficult to get through, the cinematographer fixed that by using the mirror to reflect the

sunlight. The reflected light of the mirror creates patches of light focused on the face of the

character and in the white of the young woman's outfit.

In the scene when the bandit hiding in the bushes, the light only glint on his face to best show his

will, like an animal waiting to snatch its bait from the dark. The light effect is evident in the

bandit's recovery, recounting the scene when he ran back to the young woman to tell her husband
was get into trouble. When Tajomaru laughed and ran. The light shines directly on his face and

shines on the image of the white hooded young woman ...

If lighting is the main factors for film, a symbolic detail. Then the forest would be an extra space

to help it bring more scenes to the viewer. Forests, with their intrinsic characteristics where there

are many dense trees, the sunlight is difficult to get through, reminds of the mysteries in the

unconscious of people. Forests also remind us of a maze of no escape. It is a space that holds the

secrets. Using sunlight to shoot movies may also be symbolic. The fact that everything often says

all through the truths are exposed in the sun, but here, the sunlight in the forest cannot be strong

enough to penetrate every corner of the forest; of the truth.

Also, in the woodcutter opening story, when he entry into the forest, the empty shot through the

sky with some high tree and slowly changing to darker dense of foliage and into the sun. It

would reflect how the dark have cover everything inside, to obscure people mind, the beliefs into

good things, also to notice the death of the samurai, who will be suffer inside the shadow of

hatred and anger made by the evil of greed and betrayal. The film usually using high angles

camera shot into the sky and point directly at the sun, which will be creating a lens flare effect.

Like there is a metaphor of poor people, sometimes dazzled by their valuable possessions, the

light that it emits sometimes changes honest people into a conspiracy and concealment, the truth

to benefit yourself.

In the scene of the trial of witnesses and defendants, the film is divided into two separate parts, in

the dark and in the morning. When accounts are seated in the shade, the idea of their hidden

corners is not fully expressed, and the lies hidden in the mind. Just like witnesses sitting outside

in the sun, it feels like when the whole society is judging someone, the light sometimes can't
reach their deepest points. The sound also has a great position in the movie to help describe the

film more vivid.

In the movie, there are rules of most film must limit placing the main light source too close to the

camera because this will be causing the light in the scene too flat and lack of depth in scenes. But

Kurosawa has proved the opposite. He used the art of light to reflect the dark places in human

evil. In fact, Akutagawa and Kurosawa have come up with a new conception of the narrator: the

narrator is not the one who knows all, he only knows part of the truth and deliberately tells the

truth in a beneficial way. best for me. Or as the monk said in the ruined temple, people will never

be able to have the truth because of their own weakness and selfishness. A new feature in the

narrative art of this film is the way of telling stories. equal to present. It narrates the murder

through a flashback of 4 characters. This is the point Kurosawa inherits from the author of the

short story Akutagawa. But the film goes further than retrospective narrative technique because

his story is a remembrance of remembrance, reappearance in renaissance. Indeed, the testimony

of the victims here is not recorded directly as in the short story of Akutagawa which is told in the

words of the woodcutter and the monk. The unique feature of "Rashomon" is: Although the

murder did not unravel, the viewers did not care, the case itself is not important. From the

opposite side of the testimonies of related people, director Kurosawa as well as the original

author Akutagawa have perfectly performed the process of "discovering humanity" even though

the film has very few characters.