Andover Film Club

Monday 9th May,  Reel Cinema, Andover   Start time: 8:00

Release: 1950 (Cert 12)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô and Masayuki Mori

In its next presentation at the Reel on Monday May 9th, Andover Film Club is bringing the Japanese masterpiece “Rashomon” (cert 12A) to the big screen.

The movie is a superb action-packed crime drama centred on the murder of a samurai, but it also has much deeper significance. Made in 1950, it not only introduced Japanese cinema to post-war Western audiences, but its central theme of depicting different versions of the same event inspired many later works. The film’s cinematic style, in particular its use of light, won many plaudits culminating in the Grand Prize at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. Not to be missed!

As always the presentation is open to the public as well as club members, and the show will start at 8.00pm.

The Guardian   Time Out     Empire 

Introduction Given On The Night, By Mark Grainger

This film is the first Japanese film that has been shown by the Club. I know this may come as a surprise to some of you but I’m not fluent in Japanese. Please excuse me, therefore, if some of my pronunciation is a bit off centre.

The Japanese film industry is the 4th biggest in the World and the country has been producing films since the very start of cinema. During the 1940’s because of the weak economy & the effects of the war, the output was significantly reduced and most of the films made during the early 40’s were militaristic and of propaganda for the expansion of the Japanese Empire.

The 1950’s, when Rashomon was made is regarded by many as the period when Japan produced some of it’s finest films. Some artists are said to produce their best work in times of stress and 1950's Japan must certainly have been a tough place to live.

Rashomon was directed by Akira Kurosawa, probably the greatest Japanese director of the period and the film is based on a short story written by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who is reckoned by most to be the father of the Japanese short story writing. Rashomon was published early in his career in 1914. There was a short film of the same name produced in 1911 in which he is credited as the writer, which makes me suspect that the concept of the story-line may come from a much older Japanese folk story.

You’ll be pleased to know that we’re showing the 1950’s version of the film tonight. Rashomon won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and marked the entrance of Japanese cinema onto the world stage.

Akira Kurosawa went on to make his epic Seven Samurai in 1954, which was later remade in Hollywood with a largely American cast under the title The Magnificent Seven.

So what is the film about ? At it’s simplest level it is a folk tale like the 3 thieves sat round a fire on a dark and stormy night and one says to another “tell us a story”. There is no fire and Rashomon itself is actually a ruined gatehouse in which the three men are sheltering from a rainstorm, but the analogy is close.

At another level it is a classic “who-dun-it” with 2 of the men present having been witnesses at a recent murder trial, where a samurai was killed and his wife raped. The evidence is conflicting on the mechanics and motives behind the crime, but supposedly the guilt of the criminal is clear.

Alternatively it could be classed as a ghost story, for one of the other witnesses at the trial was medium presenting the evidence of the dead samurai.

But I think that Rashomon is much more profound than that. It turns out to be an examination of validity of peoples perceptions of events as well the roles that people play when under crisis. Enjoy the film