Rashomon

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Recommended: Literature in medieval times in Japan

Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is more than a story of murder. It is a story about man’s quest of truth amid stories of lies. The investigation for truth, reality and justice is the central focus of the film. By giving conflicting stories of a specific event, it challenges the objectivity and reliability of human perception. Set in Medieval Japan, the film tells the story of a samurai’s death with symbolisms and allusions to man’s quest for justice. Moreover, it also discusses in context the different lies that men do and their motive for it. The story is simple. A samurai and his wife were travelling in the forest when they encounter a bandit called Tajomaru. In the process, the samurai was dead. Just like the woodcutter, the priest, and the peasant

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