Japanese Classics: Rashomon

Our monthly matinee program kicks off with perhaps the most famous Japanese movie of all time. Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai-era murder mystery, in the words of Roger Ebert, “struck the world of film like a thunderbolt,” winning the top award at the Venice Film Festival and an Academy Award, and paving the way for greater awareness of Japanese cinema around the world. By telling its story from the mutually contradictory points of view of four separate characters—each with their own agenda—Kurosawa broke new ground for narrative cinema and created an enduring classic. (Dir.: Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1950, 88 min., B&W, DCP, Japanese with English subtitles)