Books2Movies Club discussion

We read two stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Rashoumon and In a Grove, on purpose, because they both are the basis for the legendary movie Rashômon (1950) by Akira Kurosawa. From this movie comes so-called Rashomon effect, the story-telling technique using multiple non-reliable narrators for describing the same event.

Hollywood answers to this movie (or story) include The Outrage (1964) with Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey, and Iron Maze (1991) with Jeff Fahey and Bridget Fonda in the main roles.

The stories are now in public domain so you can probably find them for free online, but that depends also on the publication date of the translation to your language. However, I am certain every decent public library has at least one copy of the book. I hope you'll like these stories and the movies :)

The nook link didn't work. Here are some others.

Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories\
Rashomon and Other Stories
Rashomon

NancyJ wrote: "The nook link didn't work. Here are some others...

Thank you, Nancy. Maybe I should have added links to those free e-books in the first place (both in public domain):
FEEDBOOKS - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa: In a Grove
FEEDBOOKS - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa: Rashoumon

I think it's worth noting some things about the author and his brief life. He is only one in the long line of Japanese authors who killed themselves. If he didn't, he would've probably reached far larger audience, and achieved even more than he had already, with his large opus of 150 stories. Even the Nobel prize winner of 1968, Yasunari Kawabata, dedicated some words in his acceptance speech to him (and to his suicide, noting with disapproval what young talent we have lost because of it -- ironically, he also committed suicide later in his life... That's also a curious and sad story, but we digress).

His childhood was burdensome. His mother was mentally ill, and his father left him to the care of his maternal uncle's family. His health was always fragile, and his mind always occupied with the worries he would inherit his mother's illness. His works were becoming more negative as his anxiety and pessimism grew. Before he ended his life, Akutagawa even wrote elaborately about the reasons that drove him to that decision. He left behind a wife and three children. It is said that Akutagawa was a literary genius and a great scholar (he studied English Literature, but was also very interested in Chinese and Japanese literature), always buying and carrying new books for reading and studying. His tendency for utmost literary perfection often compare his work with Edgar Allan Poe's.

These two stories were a bit difficult to read. They were both dark, and all characters were, mildly put, unpleasant. Rashomon deals with the recently unemployed servant pondering how to survive without any work and roof above his head. The old woman he caught under Rashomon gates plundering the corpses eases his decision. The story is shocking, in a sense how detailed is a description of the poverty and despair in those two characters - it is impossible not to feel simultaneously disgust and pity towards them. It is also an interesting look into how harsh those times were in Japan. To be honest, it wasn't any different in any other country in the world whenever hunger, disease and crime rule the society. However it seems the strict social hierarchy in the old Japan made things much harder for the unfortunate. Dilapidated Rashomon gates even served as the place to abandon corpses no one asked for.

In the Grove is a detective story told from different perspectives, however, with no clear answers. Each witness is unreliable, and each statement only adds to the confusion. Even the color of the kimono husband wore wasn't the same in each account. I couldn't establish a unique course of the crime. I guess it wasn't the objective to find who's the murderer but to realize that each of the possible culprits feels guilt of some kind that blurs their judgments. I admit I didn't pay attention to details so well. Maybe I would've figured out who's really the murderer. It's interesting to note how cruel and misogynist was the depiction of the wife. From every viewpoint, even her own, after the rape, she only wanted to salvage her reputation. The options were presented differently, and all were repulsive.

I still have to watch the movie, but from what I remember, Kurosawa took only the setting and the title from the first story. The movie is based on that second story. I remember only how impressive the cinematography was. Now I wonder how the each character was presented, especially the wife.

Watched Rashomon a few days ago. The cinematography was stunning. Despite it being a monochrome movie, I still felt like we were in the woods, so eerily beautiful! And the rainstorm in the temple felt so real (and the movie trivia says there were some tricks used, because the real rain didn't want to show on the screen naturally).

Performances were odd. Mifune was extraordinary with his transformations, but still his overacting creeped me out. The wife, and her looks (those eyebrows!), was strange. I couldn't understand her hysterics. Where was love in any of her calculations? Did she love her husband at all? And he, was she only a property to him? I admit every performance in the movie was fascinating to watch. The actors were really good.

Storywise I didn't feel the crime was so horrific as the priest said, 'worse than fires, wars and plagues'. It was a heinous crime, but simply can't be compared with the butchering in any of the wars we had in the last century. I'd rather say the crime was so puzzling, because they all lied not to save but to accuse themselves. The medium segment was totally unhelpful. What was the benefit of it? To save them both from hanging? Well, who told the truth? I guess the woodcutter was the closest. He appeared in the end a genuinely good man, who didn't want to incriminate anyone in the court, despite them all being awful human beings. The scene in the end was particularly touching, restoring hope to humanity.

If you've seen the movie, what do you think? Did you like its aesthetics and performances? Regarding the story, what's your conclusion, what had actually happened?