Rashomon (1950)

-
"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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more