The plot
The movie starts off at a temple on a very rainy day where 3 men wait to see off the rain. They discuss an incident involving a bandit and a husband-wife couple in the forest, where the husband is killed. There are varying versions of the same incident.
The bandit, the wife and the husband's ghost testify before the court. Each of them gives a very different take on the actual incident. The bandit says that he killed the husband for the wife's sake after a fierce fight, the wife gives a very unconvincing testimony and the husband 's ghost gives his own version. There are also 2 witnesses who testify. These 2 are there at the temple in the first scene. They are actually narrating the entire story to the 3rd man at the temple.
Finally one of the witnesses tells to the 2 men in the temple, that he actually saw the incident taking place before his eyes and this one differs widely from all the 3 versions.
Hits
The movie starts off at a temple on a very rainy day where 3 men wait to see off the rain. They discuss an incident involving a bandit and a husband-wife couple in the forest, where the husband is killed. There are varying versions of the same incident.
The bandit, the wife and the husband's ghost testify before the court. Each of them gives a very different take on the actual incident. The bandit says that he killed the husband for the wife's sake after a fierce fight, the wife gives a very unconvincing testimony and the husband 's ghost gives his own version. There are also 2 witnesses who testify. These 2 are there at the temple in the first scene. They are actually narrating the entire story to the 3rd man at the temple.
Finally one of the witnesses tells to the 2 men in the temple, that he actually saw the incident taking place before his eyes and this one differs widely from all the 3 versions.
Hits
- Pioneering screenplay technique
- The music is dramatic and grand
- The camerawork through the forest scenes is racy and quite impressive for such an old movie
- Toshiro Mifune as Tajomaru, the bandit acts well as the manic man with a loud laugh.
Misses
- There is still confusion in the end as to which is actually the true version. No one's testimony is trustworthy
- The entire movie is about this incident and the varying points of view but, the movie ends with a sermon about the goodness of humanity between the 3 men, after they find an abandoned baby in the temple. Quite irrelevant
- The screenplay is quite slow due to the repeated focus on the same incident.
VERDICT
Watchable for the pioneering screenplay by Akira Kurosawa.
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