50 years ago: Rashômon, the first major postwar Japanese film, released

Rashômon

Rashômon Released: August 25, 1950 Studio: Daiei Film Genre: foreign/suspense Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 0.14 Worldwide: 0.18 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Akira Kurosawa Screenwriting: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura Review: This was the “first huge international success” LM for Japanese director/screenwriter Akira Kurosawa and the “first major postwar Japanese film to be released stateside.” PM It is one of his “most inventive and sustained achievements.” T95 “Its virtues are…plentiful: Kurosawa’s visual style at its most muscular, rhythmically nuanced editing, and excellent performances.” T95 “The film’s very title has become part of our language.” LM “The main part of the film, set in 12th century Kyoto, offers four mutually contradictory versions of an ambush, rape and murder, each through the eyes of one of those involved.” T95 “The police interrogate witnesses, only to find in each retelling of the event that there is no one true version.” PM “The view of human weaknesses and vices is notably astringent, although the sheer animal vigor of Mifune’s bandit is perhaps a celebration of a sort.” T95 “Rashomon emerged as the definitive cinematic treatment of point of view.” PM Sources: LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” PM Premiere Magazine (Oct. 1998). “100 Most Daring Movies Ever Made” T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 1 – Most Outstanding Foreign Film (Honorary Award) Nominations: 1 – Best B/W Art/Set Direction Lists: Experts’ Picks: Genre Lists: First posted 6/12/2023.