RASHOMON
Japan, 1950
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa
Starring Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
Based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s short story In a Grove
NEW 35mm print from the Yale Film Archive. Approx. 88 min.
Introduction by Aaron Gerow, A. Whitney Griswold Professor of East Asian Languages & Literatures and Film & Media Studies
Rape and murder in 12th-century Kyoto, as seen by four conflicting witnesses. Adapted from two stories by the great Ryunosuke Akutagawa, its worldwide acclaim (Venice Grand Prize, Best Foreign Film Oscar) vaulted an already-great-but internationally-unknown director and national cinema to world prominence. Machiko Kyō’s performance would land her a LIFE cover and, as the Bandit, Mifune goes beyond overacting into something so outrageous it could only be real.