Topic > Criticism of society in the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon is a film by Japanese film creator Akira Kurosawa. This infamous movie really lets you use your imagination to come up with your own ending. The film uses multiple perspectives on the same event to show the importance of truth and perception in our society. When you watch this movie, you create your own thoughts about who you think is telling the truth. Rashomon gives us great insight into how people are willing to lie at all costs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay I will first reflect on the commonalities between the society and the characters of Rashomon. Through the use of four different stories from a single event, Rashomon shows the weakness of society. All four characters share a common idea though, they are all trying to stay out of trouble and appear like a better person than they actually are. The perception of others is all that matters to us and we believe we are no better than what people think. Just like the wife, the bandit, the woodcutter, and the samurai, it is almost impossible for us to be true to ourselves. At all costs, we never see ourselves as evil, there is always some horrible excuse to help us try to justify our actions. It's at this point that our ego takes over and we do what makes us look good even if it hurts someone else and isn't sincere. These exact steps are what happened to the characters in the movie, they only care about their well being. They were willing to make up a story and lie so they wouldn't feel bad about themselves, all four characters were just too weak to face the truth. No accountability and no public image are what prevented these characters from telling the truth about a murder. It might be hard to notice, but the fact of the matter is that most people in our society are just like the characters in Rashomon. After evaluation, you can see one thing in common in all four characters' lies, they are told so that the characters have an excuse for what happens. In every explanation except that of the woodcutter, the cashier was described as the murderer. Everyone blamed each other, causing the stories to not match and the truth to remain unknown. The woodcutter however is different from the others, he didn't actually kill anyone but he is still wrong because he stole the dagger and, more importantly, he ended up lying to the police. These characters were unable to put their egos aside and all told a false account of what really happened. There is only one important question that remains unanswered: what really happened in the murder? Just like the characters, society is willing to lie about anything just to avoid guilt in times of trouble. The first was Tajomaru, the bandit, who was the first to be informed by the court. With little explanation, he ends up saying that he didn't intend to kill the man, but had plans for the women. Even though he committed the murder himself, he comes up with this horrible explanation that the woman is the reason the man was killed. The most terrifying thing is that while explaining his story he makes her sound honorable because he said "well, the man actually put up a good fight." This clever response from Alic was used to try to justify that the murder was ok. The bandit's goal in telling his story was for us to believe him and make him seem like a good guy. Humans don't realize it right now, but it's the.