Rashomon

In the organizer's words:

Director: KUROSAWA Akira
1951, 88 minutes, OVD, b/w, DCP

Two stories by Akutagawa Ryûnosuke were the starting point for Rashômon. One provides the framework under the eponymous Rashômon, the southern gate of old Kyoto, while the other forms the core of Kurosawa's film plot. It tells of a manslaughter on the road from Sekiyama to Yamashina, the subsequent trial of the bandit Tajômaru and the attempted processing of the event by a priest, a random passer-by and a woodcutter who claims to have witnessed the crime.

In his masterpiece, which was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice International Film Festival, Kurosawa Akira puts the audience in the role of the jurors and brings the individual accounts of the crime to life in flashbacks. Each course of events becomes a possible truth.

Text excerpt from trigon-film

Film series
Japanese historical films (Jidaigeki) - Newly restored classics

Historical dramas(jidaigeki) are among the most popular film genres from Japan. We present works by master directors Misumi Kenji (1921-1975), Fukasaku Kinji (1930-2003) and Shinoda Masahiro (*1931), which have been digitized in recent years in cooperation with the Japan Foundation. The series is complemented by the newly restored classic Rashômon by Kurosawa Akira.

The jidaigeki mostly tell stories of revenge and detective stories or depict the lives of famous swordsmen. Their plot is set in the feudal era, which was characterized by fierce power struggles between the shôgunate and the local lords of various provinces. They are often set in Edo, the military metropolis of the time, but sometimes they also tell of masterless samurai roaming the country and fighting unjust adversaries.

Until the 1960s, jidaigeki made up a significant proportion of mass-produced films in Japan, with kabuki theater initially exerting an important influence. The first actors in jidaigeki usually had stage experience in kabuki, and some of the films were also produced by actors and other influential members of the kabuki theater.

Price information:

Admission free