Rashomon (1950)

During last year's election, the NYT made fun of European political commentators (especially French ones) who could only talk about American politics using metaphors from Westerns with their gunslingers, show-downs, and high-noons. I think we're in the same frame of mind when it comes to Japan, thinking of samurai and sword-play.

"Rashomon" is a great antidote to that: a crime story involving poor, rural Japanese peasants of the 19th century. The same story is told four different ways. The movie won the Oscar for best foreign film and was, in its day, the highest grossing foreign film in the US. So this is not an obscure movie: it was mentioned in the Watergate tapes made in Nixon's office. One of Nixon's aides is describing how different viewpoints can change how a story's told, "you know, like "Rashomon."

That business of telling the same story different ways has been imitated by a few movies and, for some reason, quite a few knuckle-headed TV shows, but none worth mentioning. The best example, is culturally far away, indeed, the first four books of the New Testament. But it's not as far away as you might think: the truth is, the director, Akira Kurosawa, although successful in Japan, was looked upon by the Japanese as an American-style director. He admitted that his biggest influence was... John Ford.

So "Rashomon" is a "must-see", not only for original story-telling, but for a great performance by Toshiro Mifune, great B&W cinematography and for a taste of the most influential Japanese director of the 20th Century.

PS - Nowadays it's Japanese horror movies that get American re-makes. Forty years ago, it was Akira Kurosawa movies: "The Seven Samurai" was re-made as "The Magnificent Seven" and "Yojimbo" was re-made as "A Fistful of Dollars."