Ready for His Close-up
December 07, 2012
Film Info
- Japan
- 1950
- 88 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- Japanese
- Spine #138
A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, Rashomon is widely considered one
of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accounts of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife, which director Akira Kurosawa presents with striking imagery and an ingenious use of flashbacks. This eloquent masterwork and international sensation revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema—and a commanding new star by the name of Toshiro Mifune—to the Western world.
Cast
| The bandit | Toshiro Mifune |
| The woman | Machiko Kyo |
| The man | Masayuki Mori |
| The woodcutter | Takashi Shimura |
| The priest | Minoru Chiaki |
| The commoner | Kichijiro Ueda |
| The medium | Fumiko Honma |
| The policeman | Daisuke Kato |
Credits
| Director | Akira Kurosawa |
| Executive producer | Masaichi Nagata |
| Producer | Jingo Minoura |
| Scenario | Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Based on two stories by | Ryunosuke Akutagawa |
| Photography | Kazuo Miyagawa |
| Art director | So Matsuyama |
| Music | Fumio Hayasaka |
| Lighting | Kenichi Okamoto |
Disc Features
- New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
- Interview with director Robert Altman about Rashomon
- Excerpts from The World of Kazuo Miyagawa, a documentary on Rashomon’s cinematographer
- A Testimony as an Image, a sixty-eight-minute documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Archival audio interview with actor Takashi Shimura
- Original and rerelease trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film historian Stephen Prince; an excerpt from director Akira Kurosawa’s Something Like an Autobiography; and reprints of Rashomon’s two source stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” and “In a Grove”
New cover by Kent Williams
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Video
Film Essays
Akira Kurosawa on Rashomon
By November 06, 2012
[Note: in Japan, it is customary to refer to a person with their last name first. We have . . . Read more »
Film Essays
The Rashomon Effect
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When Akira Kurosawa made Rashomon (1950), he was a forty-year-old director working near . . . Read more »
Video
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Not that he himself wanted to be remembered. Rather, he wanted his work to be remembered. He . . . Read more »
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Film Essays
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[Note: in Japan, it is customary to refer to a person with their last name first. We have . . . Read more »
Film Essays
The Rashomon Effect
By November 06, 2012
When Akira Kurosawa made Rashomon (1950), he was a forty-year-old director working near . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Rashomon
By June 25, 1989
Three men seek shelter from the rain under the ruined gate of the ancient city of Kyoto. There . . . Read more »
Photo Galleries
Video
Film Essays
Akira Kurosawa on Rashomon
By November 06, 2012
[Note: in Japan, it is customary to refer to a person with their last name first. We have . . . Read more »
Film Essays
The Rashomon Effect
By November 06, 2012
When Akira Kurosawa made Rashomon (1950), he was a forty-year-old director working near . . . Read more »
Video
Features
Remembering Kurosawa
By December 09, 2009
Not that he himself wanted to be remembered. Rather, he wanted his work to be remembered. He . . . Read more »
News
Kurosawa Returns to Venice
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March 23, 2010, will mark the centenary of Akira Kurosawa’s birth, and the cinema world is . . . Read more »
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Tokyo Journal: Remembering Toshiro Mifune
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