The document provides an analysis and summary of the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa. It discusses how the film presents four different versions of the same event from different perspectives. While the details of each account conflict, they agree that a samurai was killed and his wife was raped. The document analyzes why the characters may have lied or distorted the truth in their testimonies, and how this reflects the idea that absolute truth is impossible and truth is relative. It also discusses the debates between those who believe multiple truths can co-exist, like Roger Ebert, versus those who believe there is one absolute truth.

1. Hyohyun Lee
Senior Seminar: Period 7
September 22nd, 2010
Relative Truth and Perception in Rashomon
The film Rashomon starts with a shot of Rashomon gate in Japan, which is almost
collapsed. And a woodcutter keeps saying, ‘I don’t understand.’ This makes people interested
in what he does not understand and soon people come to know that there are four different
versions on a story which has occurred in forest. Through this film, different perspectives are
obviously presented by each four person. The various versions of the story given in the film
are so different from one another that the differences cannot be attributed merely to differing
points of view. Therefore, two different sides have an argument on different perspectives in
the film; Roger Ebert believes that there can be multiple truths because humans are not
honesty with themselves while Errol Morris says that there is only one truth, absolute truth.
Of two points, Ebert’s makes more sense because the message of the movie is more about
that people tend to alter the truth to hide their deficiencies than that a single truth of the event
does not exist. In addition, the multiple truths can exist because different true versions of the
story make a new truth.
In Rashomon, even though the ultimate event is same, four different people mention
different perspectives on who has killed the samurai and how the event has happened. Here, it
can be said that each person’s version of the story reflects his or her own personal world view
or specifically how they desire to view the world. They tend to make the truth distorted
because they do not want to be looked as a criminal by other people who would listen to their
testimonies. In the film, it is sure that someone is lying or hiding the real story because he or
she may be afraid of something if he or she tells the truth. For example, the version of the
woodcutter sounds believable compared to others because we all know that he is the one who
has heard all other testimonies and he is the last one who tells us the truth. However, by the

2. Hyohyun Lee
Senior Seminar: Period 7
September 22nd, 2010
commoner, it is revealed that the woodcutter’s story is not also real but fake. In general, when
people look at context or background of an event, they can make a guess on how the ultimate
event happens. Therefore, the reason why the woodcutter tells a lie can be that he may take
the dagger of woman because while he is telling his testimony, he never mentions about the
dagger. As this example illustrates, people lie because they want to hide what they do not
want to tell anybody. However, we do not know which one is a lie or which one is real truth,
so each testimony in the film is true for each person. In short, their perspectives depend on
their views on the world or what they want to see.
Additionally, another example related to context also shows how people modify their
statement to hide truth. The wife, for example, states the most obscure witness, which does
not tell much about the fight and her dagger. She just tells the police that she drops her dagger
in the forest and loses it. If her witness is a fake, we can consider the reason why she tells a
lie as that she may be ashamed of herself. According to what has happened before she kills
her husband, she is dumped by both two men eventually, which makes her abashed. For her,
it would be better to be doubted as a criminal than to be regarded as a dumped woman. This
is because Asian culture including Japan, Korea, and China is strict in the sense of the
relationship between men and women or in terms of the morals of women.
In Rashomon, all the recollection of different versions of the same story collaborate
each other to create new truth, so in that sense each recollection can be truth. Even though
each story told by different four people is different, it is true that the woman is raped by the
bandit and the husband is dead. It means that each story combines together to come up with a
new fact, which is common in every story, much broader, and eventual. For instance, the
bandit tells the police that he has killed the man but he has had no intention before killing him.

3. Hyohyun Lee
Senior Seminar: Period 7
September 22nd, 2010
On the contrary, the wife says that after the rape, the bandit just runs away and insists that she
kills him with her dagger. Both testimonies are completely different, so it is impossible to
know who is telling the truth at the end of the film. All people tell their stories with absolute
conviction and the film itself shoots each testimony with the same detailed photography.
Through this, it can be said that the moral of Rashomon is that truth is relative according to
many variables. Therefore, it is sure that although each story does not seem true, they
ultimately have something in common, which is that the man is dead. In other words, those
relative small versions or multiple truths work together to create a new truth.
Ebert, who has an artistic and subjective view on the film, believes that multiple
truths can exist because humans deceive themselves and modify the truth. And I think that his
point of view fits the movie itself more than Morris’ does. In the film, the ruined gate,
Rashomon, firstly represents the ruined morals of human beings. People knowingly alter the
truth to hide their faults and make their own truth, which shows that there cannot be the
absolute truth. Likewise, the notion of “Rashomon” today refers generally to when there is no
consensus on the truth around an event, which agrees with Ebert’s point. However, after a
baby is found behind the gate and the woodcutter decides to adopt him, the rain stops and all
come back into the peace. This change in the weather and in woodcutter’s mind shows that all
men are weak, but in their occasional acts of selflessness lies the hope for humanity.