Rashomon

I just watched Rashomon today. I know we are supposed to worship it as this amazing Kurosawa classic but I really didn't like it. Let me admit up front that I don't know much of the context, or anything Kurosawa may or may not be quoting. I don't think that should matter though - when a movie is good it draws you in & makes you think & feel, regardless of when or where it's from.

The movie did interest me on the intellectual level, with its issues of what truth is & how you can decide what to believe. As a lawyer, I frequently think about that, since we deal in many versions of the truth that are all just different ways of looking at the same facts. I tried to understand everyone's motivation to figure out what the truth really was, which was complicated by my uncertainty about the mores of early 20th century Japan. My best guess was that the bandit exaggerated to make himself look good. The woman tried to protect the bandit by taking responsibility for her husband's murder. The husband was vengeful & wanted his wife to look as bad as possible. The peasant (or fisherman or whatever) wanted to enjoy the drama a bit. So I think the real story is along these lines: the bandit rapes the woman. At some point she decides she likes his "passion" better than her proper, traditional marriage. The husband realizes this & now looks at her with total contempt. She sees that her honor is stained unless he dies. The bandit kills him, either honorably or not, but now that he has no competition he rejects her too. She escapes from him somehow & they are all so stupid they end up at the courthouse.

I didn't find the story very convincing. The bandit & the wife in the last story laugh maniacally & disturbingly. Why are they deranged? If they aren't, why does Kurosawa have them laugh like that? Is that how Japanese people laughed then? Because I don't think anyone would consider it sane. What was Kurosawa referencing or trying to convey by making the woman's hands look spider-like every time she was raped or seduced? If he's trying to compare her to a black widow spider, the bandit is superfluous. I also don't see why the husband was so easily overpowered. He looks like a samurai, certainly more with it than the half-naked bandit, & it makes no sense that he could be tied up so easily & just sit there quietly watching his wife assaulted. Ropes aren't that hard to wriggle out of, especially ones that look as loose as his. I violently disagree with the way everyone in the movie accepts the viewpoint that once raped, the wife is dishonored & a whore, but I'm aware that's how they thought back then. Why do the husband & bandit keep falling down? They're running around in the woods on leaves & dirt, not in sand or mud. That almost turned it into a bad comedy for me. & in the last version, why is the bandit so tired from defeating the husband that he can't catch a small crying woman wrapped in tons of flowing clothes? Supposedly he is a terrifying criminal who preys on many travelers & I'm expected to believe that he can't feint with an incompetent opponent for 5 minutes without collapsing.

I also have Throne of Blood out from Netflix. I really hope it's better than this one.