Rashomon (1950)

Today's movie of the day = Rashomon. It's an earlier entry into Kurosawa's filmography but still stars Toshiro Mifune.

At first I was going to go into this review with some skepticism. There is no traditional closure to this film which left me feeling like I missed something. Then I watched a TED-Ed video on it and it completely changed my mindset. Where I felt like I was almost gypped by the ending originally, now I see what the end result was and I'm much more impressed.

The funny thing is, right before they brought up the Elephant Paradox I was thinking it was a good example of it. Then a few seconds later, boom!

From Wikipedia: It is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and imagine what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant's body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and their descriptions of the elephant are different from each other. In some versions, they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows.

This movie was all about perception but they don't spoon feed you a 100% faithful interpretation. Instead it is up to you to come to your own conclusion. It's based on a Japanese story called In the Grove.

Anyhow, I was about to rate this one low but after thinking about it, it's pretty brilliant.

Yes, I'd recommend it. Especially so if you want a mind screw! :)

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