Winner of an honorary Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the compelling 1950 Japanese drama, Rashômon, ranks among director Akira Kurosawa’s masterpieces.
In feudal Japan, a bandit, a dead samurai, his wife, a woodcutter and a priest give varying accounts of an ambush, rape and a murder. But is anyone telling the truth?
Unfurling his tale through different eyewitnesses, Kurosawa skilfully examines the nature of truth and experience (basically don’t believe anything you hear). A visual feast for the eye and ear, and featuring commanding performances - especially Toshiro Mifune as the bandit, this is story telling at its most masterful and a hugely influential cinema classic that begs revisiting.
The BFI 2015 Blu-ray release features the film restored in high definition, with the follow special features…
• New audio commentary by Kurosawa expert Stuart Galbraith IV
• Rashômon at 65 New 34-minute location documentary featuring interviews with former staff from the Daiei-Kyoto Studios
• John Boorman on Rashômon (6mins)
• Illustrated booklet
