A Dash of Mifune: Rashomon and More (Part III)

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.