1) The film Rashomon examines the topic of perception and truth through contradictory stories of a samurai's death told by different characters. 2) Film critic Roger Ebert believes reality is subjective and truth is relative based on individual interpretation, while documentarian Errol Morris argues truth and reality are objective. 3) Ebert's view fits with the film as each character sees the truth differently based on their own background and perspective, demonstrating there is no single absolute truth.

1. Htet Hlaing, P5
Senior Seminar
Perception of Truth
Rashomon (1950) a film by Akira Kurosawa struck the world of film as it
examined the topic of perception, which is the process of attaining awareness or
understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.
cxzzxThe film revolves around a case of the death of a samurai and the sexual assault
of his wife by the bandit. The four main characters that includes in this film are the
samurai, the wife, the bandit and the woodcutter. These characters exclaim their
contradicting side of the story about the case to the judge, which indicate their
different perception toward the case. With the connection to the theory of perception
and truth in this film, different perspectivesabout reality and truth can be learned
through two famous individuals in the film industry, Rodger Ebert, the critic and Errol
Morris, the documenter. Ebert believes that reality is subjective and truth is relative
based on human interpretation, while Morris argue that truth and reality are
independent of people ergo and they are both absolute and objective.Ebert’s views of
perception and truth fit well with the idea of the film since all the characters told
different stories, which indicate that each individual sees a truth of how the murder
happened, and in their perception it is true to them.
Ebert’s views is relate to the theory of relativism that there is no absolute
truth, therefore there are multiple truths. Relativism by definition is that there is no
such thing as absolute truth that exists in an objective way independent of what
anyone happens to believe is true. Instead, truth is relative and may be different for
different individuals or for different cultures. Therefore there is no absolute truth and
everyone has different perspective on truth. Truth is subjective to what each
individual believes. In the film the characters has different perception of truth since
they came from different background, therefore the truth about the murder is based on
their interpretation and what they believe is true. The bandit has a background of
committing crime and has been successful; as a result he believes he earned what it
takes to kill the samurai. The samurai has his own vows and beliefs in order to be a
samurai so he feel shame due to betrayal of his wife, he decide to kill himself like a

2. normal samurai would. The wife has a similar background as the samurai so she
believes she killed him out of love so he would not suffer the pain of shame. As for
the woodcutter, he can be seen as a witness and is only explaining what he saw. A
relativist like Ebert would say that the characters’ stories were all true because truth is
base on an individual’s influence or experiences. Relating to Plato’s allegory of the
cave, it can be said that these characters only sees their own side of the ultimate truth.
They believe they are right because of what they sees, so the ultimate truth about the
case in this film can be seen as the combination of what they says was true, but at the
same time they are wrong since human are not equip to sees the ultimate truth. Also
this can be relating to the example of blinds men and the elephant.
Emotion has a large impact on the perception of truth and reality of a situation
or a case because each individual experience and feels differently. When making
decisions, emotion is commonly used because it is what feels right. The murder case
in Rashomon can be said that it is a result of emotional decision-making; therefore
emotional characteristic can be seen in their view of the murder case. Intuition is the
reason that made the characters use emotion when making their decisions because
they associated the murder case with a solution without going through any conscious
process of reasoning. Since each character had different emotional relationship with
the samurai, they had different feelings toward him and his death. Since the film
examines the topic of perception, truth is different for each character because they
perceive differently. This is due to the influence of emotion because they will
perceive the case on how they feel. Also it is possible that these characters perceive
through other senses, which relate back to the example of the blind men and the
elephant. They will only sense a particular part of the ultimate truth and the ultimate
truth is limit to them. Therefore they are not wrong but they are also not right.
Ebert’s view of perception and truth is related to belief and mental map of an
individual because a person’s beliefs made up their mental map of how they perceive
things. In this case, each of these characters believe in their side of the story is true,
while they considers false for each other stories. In order to see perception of truth,
they must believe it first. Without belief it is impossible to find the truth.Ebert views
of reality are subjective and truth is relative based on human interpretation, but belief
is necessary before an individual states a truth. From Ebert’s view belief is important
because truth can be true to one, but false for another, so truth mush be believed in
order to made up their mental map. “Mental map of reality includes the ideas of what

3. is true and what is false, what is reasonable and what is not, what is right and what is
wrong.”(Lagemaat). In the film, each character has different mental map and they
perceive reality differently since they have their own ideas of what is true and what is
not. Therefore their belief influences their mental maps and how they perceive truth.
Ebert’s views of perception and truth result in unreliable solutions to the judge
about who commit the murder of the samurai, but his view clarify why each character
has different story about the murder. This is due to the effect of different beliefs and
mental map that each character has, which leads to how their emotions influence how
they perceive the truth about the murder. Ebert believes that all of these theories are
dependent to an individual and explain why he would believe in no absolute truth.
The idea that there is no absolute truth explains why there are misinterpretations and
confusions to the judge in the film and to us, the audience.