Rashomon (1950)

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"In a Grove" (by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) has always been the murder mystery that has stumped me since I read it in high school. It's a story about a samurai who was killed in a grove. But the narration of what happened that led to the warrior's death was provided by seven people: a woodcutter, a priest, the samurai's wife, the samurai's mother-in-law, a bounty hunter, the infamous bandit, and the late samurai himself (through a spirit medium). They were providing testimony in court. As an avid reader of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories, I was prepared to put the puzzle pieces together as I read the short story. However, the accounts by the four characters were so filled with inconsistencies and conflicting bits of information that it was difficult to sift through what is truth and what is designed to keep the character's reputation intact. What was consistent in their testimonies though were:

                  (1) the samurai was killed
                  (2) the samurai's wife was raped by the bandit before the samurai was killed
                  (3) the samurai's wife wished that the samurai was dead
                  (4) the samurai's wife and the bandit did not leave the crime scene together

Who killed the samurai? It's a question I thought will be clarified once I've seen the film based on this short story, "Rashomon" (available in Youtube). It's an award-winning film directed by Akira Kurosawa and is considered one of the greatest movies in the history of cinema.

"Rashomon" began with a heavy downpour at the Rashomon City Gate. The priest and the woodcutter were telling the story of what they witnessed to a commoner (with the testimonies in court as flashbacks, and what happened in the grove as flashbacks within the court flashbacks). The direction of the film reminded me of Inception, in which all the action happened in a dream found beneath several dream layers; and of Vantage Point, a movie that featured how different people viewed a traumatic event.

Unfortunately, Rashomon did not solve the murder mystery. It is still up to the audience to deduce what really happened or to just let the story go, content without knowing who killed the samurai. In contrast, Vantage Point and Inception provided the audience with catharsis.

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