Remember we're going to finish Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon for Wednedsay's class, and then we'll discuss it on Friday. The questions that are due on Friday (not Wednesday) are below. Don't forget the Paper #1 assignment which is due on Monday (no class that day)! The post below this one has that assignment in case you misplaced it.
Answer TWO of the following for Friday's class:
Q1: Why does the film include a 'frame' story with the characters huddling under the city gates (the "Rashomon" is a great gate in the city of Kyoto), telling us about the story of the samurai, his wife, and the thief? Why not simply have those characters tell their story themselves? What does bouncing back and forth from one layer to the other allows us to see or think about?
Q2: The story of the murder is told from several different narrators: the witness (who tells his story twice), the priest, the thief, the wife, and the samurai (who is dead and tells is through a medium). Though the essential story is the same, what aspect changes the most from story to story? Why do you think this is?
Q3: Related to Q2, is there someone's story we're meant to believe more than the others? Is someone more reliable or trustworthy? Or does someone have less to lose than the others? Consider that they each tell things about themselves that are unfavorable, and few of them come off looking good in any version.
Q4: One of three men hiding under the Rashomon tells the others, "unless you're selfish, you can't survive." Do you think that's the true moral of the story: that in the end, you have to look out for yourself? Does that explain the actions of most of the characters in the film?
Q5: One extra question to consider: why might this story be more effective in black and white than in color? In other words, why might a modern-day version of Rashomon lose something in the translation? What makes the old-fashioned style of the 1950's ideal for telling this type of story?
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