What is the movie Rashomon about? I've read it and I don't understand it.
"There was a gloomy darkness around me unconsciously, and I fell down in this gloomy silence. At this time, someone crept up to me, and that person quietly grabbed the short knife inserted in my chest and slowly pulled it out. " After saying this, the witch in white robe collapsed to the ground, the wind was blowing, and the white scarf covered her face. The male voice coming from her body seems to reveal the truth. Behind her, a monk and a burly middle-aged man who looked down and out showed puzzled or frightened expressions.
This is a fragment of Rashomon filmed by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. In ancient pickets, the dead told the truth through the mouth of witches. The man's voice in The Witch keeps performing and telling, trying to frame the scene in the audience's mind. This is a strange and mysterious sight. The witch's white robe fluttered in the strong wind, her red mouth contracted and opened, and she uttered strange words in a hurry. The Japanese woman's thick long hair dances with the strong wind and her footsteps, and dances with the plot. But when she fell, the mystery in the play was even more difficult to solve.
The story is actually very simple. A couple walked through the forest, and the cool summer breeze blew away a woman's veil, which made the Beijing thief Duo Xiang, who was resting on the roadside, excited and determined to get this woman. But he didn't want to kill the woman's husband. So he followed the couple, set a scam, tricked her husband into a secluded place and tied him up. When he went back and told the woman that her husband had been bitten by a poisonous snake, the worried expression on her face made him jealous. He took the woman to the place where the man was tied and raped her in front of her husband. In the ancient Japanese society where male chauvinism was extremely developed, women were faced with the problem of which man to choose, and the doubts of the story also came from this. The final result was that her husband was killed, the woman was found in a nun, and Duoxiang Pill was brought to court for drinking water poisoning.
The film actually contains a double narrator. The first floor is in the ruined temple of Rashomon, the tragic middle-aged man. His narration also includes the narration of the dead represented by women, fragrant pills and court witches. It is in the narration of these protagonists that the theme of the film is highlighted. Everyone describes the truth differently, but everyone's expression is so sincere that people can't doubt it.
The first is the fragrant pill. He is a lovely figure, very pure, and has no heart. From the story of the middle-aged man later, when he begged a woman to be his "clay family", he said, "I am a man with evil thoughts, and then I follow them." This is a simple concept of life. There is no distinction between good and evil in his soul. From his own understanding, it is probably all evil. But it is this pure evil that makes him ignore the choice between good and evil, because there is no good component in the soul for him to choose. Such a person, such a living method, seems to be easier to forgive than those who know what good is but still do evil. It is conceivable that he will be easier to change than others after being thoroughly educated by good. Everyone is a piece of paper. People with good and evil personalities are like people with various colors on paper, and people without colors on paper are completely white, that is, pure and kind people do not exist, because as long as they survive in society and get the necessary benefits, they will be contaminated by evil. In fact, pure evil people should not exist, because living in the same society will inevitably expose me to various social ethics, which is usually called goodness. Even Duoxiang Pill, in the story of middle-aged men, knows that when a woman asks him to kill her husband, it is the mark of society to let him punish such a wife. Pure evil people, if they exist, can be drawn like a piece of pure black paper, or it is feasible to paint them all white.
When talking about this matter, Duoxiang Maru constantly stressed that she didn't really want to kill her husband. First, the woman begged him, "Either you die or my husband dies. One of you must die. Making a fool of yourself in front of two men is worse than dying. I will go with the living. " So he let go of the bondage of men. Secondly, he stressed that "even if I want to kill that man, I never want to kill him by despicable means." That man killed him, too. We played 23 rounds, and I admire him for that. The only people who can fight with me for twenty rounds are men in this world. "It is also worth mentioning that when he raped a woman, the woman did not struggle excessively, and later even reached out and held him out. In other words, he did not completely force women to do so, which lightened his rape fault and showed his personal charm. There is no doubt that the self described in his mouth at this time has undoubtedly become an ideal and respected Grand Theft Auto, romantic and heroic, and aboveboard. Judging from the original intention of the film and the concept of expression, I am afraid it is just his imagination. The truth was naturally concealed by him, and his story was to alleviate his sins. Although he admitted that he killed her husband, it was also an act of realizing his frank reputation. As he said, this head will hang over Gao Qian sooner or later.
The second is a woman who describes herself as the most standard template woman in ancient times. Weak, unable to resist violence, but firm in heart. Duoxiang pill seems to be a madman. After venting, he ignored the problem of leaving their husband and wife and ran away with a smile. After being raped, she wanted to get close to her husband and want something from him, but he only gave her contemptuous eyes. "Up to now, when I think of those eyes, I still feel like my blood is solidified. What shines in his eyes is neither anger nor sadness, but I despise my cold light. " There is nothing she can do. It seems that he became a bystander after being played by Duoxiang Pill. Her husband looked down on him and wouldn't even kill her. She fainted. When she woke up, her husband was stabbed in the chest. She is the most obedient thing in Japanese women's education, and there is no ego behind men. This is the image she created for herself. Nothing can be done without mistakes. She is the most pathetic and pitiable ultimate victim. Everything is a man's fault. Duoxiang pill is really a villain. He left her and ran away. Her husband didn't have any sympathy for her, but despised her. She can't do anything, she doesn't know who killed her husband, she doesn't know how she fell into a coma and even failed to commit suicide. She was thoroughly cleansed of her mistakes and sins.
It can also be seen that from her story, it seems that a little bit of female consciousness can be seen. Although she describes herself as the most ideal traditional woman, she unconsciously puts the blame on men, who are the source of evil and she has always been innocent. She didn't mention love, and later the deceased's narrative didn't mention their love, which was normal at that time and the film didn't emphasize it too much. In this loveless marriage, perhaps the hatred for men has long been planted in her subconscious. However, this kind of consciousness is very weak, which can't overthrow the deep-rooted traditional education in her mind and leave a standard female image.
The third is the deceased, who speaks through the mouth of a witch, but the narrative effect is not compromised at all. The woman he described is evil, and the whole thing started with this "bitch". "I thought at the time, but with this sentence, I can forgive the robbers' crimes." This sentence was said by her husband after the woman asked Duoxiang Pill to kill her husband, but Duoxiang Pill was very surprised and angry and asked her husband what to do with the woman. It can be concluded that this husband is the most common male centrist in ancient times and the product of a patriarchal society for thousands of years. He thought he was good to women and didn't let Duoxiang Pill kill her. Women are all "bitches". He didn't consider what would happen to a woman after she was raped, and seemed to think that men could execute women like slaves. He and a woman formed a typical ancient marriage, which seems to be the same in Asia. He blamed all the mistakes on women, but committed suicide, without emphasizing the role of Duoxiang Pill in this matter. At the beginning of the narrative, he has been emphasizing "my beautiful wife", and there has always been a concept of femme fatale in his mind. His contempt for women is innate. This seems to complement women's hatred of men.
The three statements in court were all over, and the case became more and more confusing. At this time, the most direct narrator, the middle-aged man, told the audience in the ruined temple everything he saw. Here, women broke out, women are no longer weak or evil, and finally began to complain as an individual with self. His story is intriguing. First of all, he cares about women. "If you are my man, why don't you kill this man?" Middle-aged men actually see the fear and helplessness of women. She was afraid that no man would want a "bitch" like her. In his eyes, women are worthy of pity. Compared with men, she is innocent. Two men are equally mean. As a man, he narrates from this angle because he is frustrated in life. Extreme poverty made him envy and even envy Duo Xiangwan and the woman's husband. Both of them were men but had completely different fates, but that fate was beyond his reach, so his mentality became morbid contempt. He is critical of the shortcomings of these two men. He thinks that they are cowardly, selfish and rude people except for a comfortable life. He taught them a lesson through the mouth of women. The reason why he pays attention to women is to put himself in a higher position than those two men.
After everyone's narrative is completed, the theme that the director wants to express is revealed from a relatively obvious angle. The listener in the film is a key role. This theme was repeatedly mentioned by him. "People are such things, and there are many things that they are unwilling to confess to themselves." From this point of view, it seems that the narrator in the story did not deliberately lie. They seem to be deceived by their own hearts and naturally tell the truth of what they think. The cowardice of human nature can be highlighted from here. We instinctively block things that hurt ourselves, without having to go through the brain's choice at all. There is no doubt that such protection must be in our interest. This interest is both realistic and self-satisfied. For example, the rogue with many fragrant pills, the standard woman of women, the image of a gentleman who can influence his wife's life and death, and the ideal man spoken by middle-aged men from women's mouths. These are their deepest desires, which are satisfied through this narrative.
The listener seems to be a person who has a thorough view of the world, and can also be said to be an open-minded and pure evil person. He is convinced that people can't be trusted, and even the clothes of abandoned babies should be stripped off to keep out the cold. The monks present were in great pain. "However, this is the first time that such a terrible thing happened." In the ruined temple of Rashomon at that time, three people represented three simple classifications of people. Good, evil and moderate. When the listener leaves, he always carries evil. Monks, on the other hand, are weak and kind, but they can do nothing about the deteriorating world. The middle-aged man is vacillating, and his distress is precisely the question of which way to go. He took the knife "worth a few pence" from the deceased, but he didn't deny it when the listener exposed it, so he was still at a loss. Finally, he chose to bring the abandoned baby back to his family, which seems to be his choice to convert. This can also be said to be the director's little warm hope for the world.