“No one will hear you, no matter how loud you shout.” – from Rashomon
Few films have posed more questions about the nature of truth, perception, and narrative than Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a film based on two stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa – “Rashomon” and “In a Grove”. Stephen Prince, in his essay “The Rashomon Effect,” refers to the film “as unconventional, even radical in design,” and I absolutely agree. On my list of favorite films, Rashomon ranks among the top five.
Kurosawa maintained that the “truth” about the events leading to the death of the samurai is in the film. Several layers of reality certainly exist in Kurosawa’s telling, and I find myself following a different path each time I view the film.
A few lines from Kurosawa’s monumental classic:
“We all want to forget something, so we tell stories.”
“But is there anyone who’s really good? Maybe goodness is just make-believe.”
“No one tells a lie after he’s said he’s going to tell one.”
“It’s human to lie.”
“I don’t understand my own soul.”
“You just can’t live unless you’re what you call selfish.”
“No one will hear you, no matter how loud you shout. Just think. Which one of these stories do you believe?” // “None makes any sense.”
“In a tangle, in a breath.
A desperate rage of power,
of lust or fear that wills
the body on. The unsayable
your feet, your hands
never dreamed to know.”
– from “A Geometry of Extremes,” Cinéma Vérité (A-Minor Press
https://www.createspace.com/4377102)
sam of the 10,000 things 