Number 62 on IMDb's Top 250
In 12th century Japan, a samurai and his wife are attacked by the notorious bandit Tajomaru, and the samurai ends up dead. Tajomaru is captured shortly afterward and is put on trial, but his story and the wife's are so completely different that a psychic is brought in to allow the murdered man to give his own testimony. He tells yet another completely different story. Finally, a woodcutter who found the body reveals that he saw the whole thing, and his version is again completely different from the others. Hilarity ensues.
Trivia: During shooting, the cast approached Kurosawa en masse with the script and asked him, "What does it mean?" The answer Kurosawa gave at that time and also in his biography is that "Rashomon" is a reflection of life, and life does not always have clear meanings. This film is often given credit for the first time a camera was pointed directly at the sun. In Kurosawa's biography, he gives credit to his cinematographer for "inventing" it and himself for using it, but years later, during commentary that preceded the TV showing of the film, the head of the studio claimed credit, which Kurosawa bitterly denies.
This film is credited with the invention of the plot device called the Rashomon style. The same story is told from several different contrasting viewpoints. In this one, the murdered samuri even gets a chance to speak through the psychic but opts to tell the story so that he dies with honor. The twist for this one is that everyone claims to have commited the murder instead of denying it. Pretty good movie.
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