How a Thief Climbed to the Upper Story of Rashô Gate and Saw a Corpse

The author adapted two stories. That is “How a Thief Climbed to the Upper Story of Rashô Gate and Saw a Corpse” and “How a Man Who Was Accompanying His Wife to Tanba Province Got Trussed Up at Ôeyama”. The stories have been edited to ensure they meet the needs of the reader. For instance, he has edited the plot and the contents to suit the needs of the characters. The author emphasizes on changing the plot of the story.The author has added various things to the stories in the film. For instance, he has simplified the film to make it fit in the modern art. The author argues that he likes silent pictures and has always wanted to restore beauty. Hence, he has edited the stories in the film to satisfy his needs. In addition; the author has edited the shots. At first, he shot the scenes with various cameras at the same time. The author has used short shorts that are put together so as to trick the viewers. The audience sees the shorts as a single shot.

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The main theme in the movie is mankind. In this case, the author shows how people are evil and corrupted y their own selfish such that they are unable to tell the truth. For instance, the wood cutter does not tell the truth as he wants to appear good. Also, the author characters in the movie do not tell the truth apart from the priest as they want to appear good. Most of the characters in the movie are selfish and this makes it hard for them to tell the truth about theme selves and other people. The priest argues that if people cannot trust each other, then the world is a hell. So, people are not supposed to live. This is evidenced by his comments “If people cannot trust each other, this world might as well be hell”. The author has used the rashomon effect to show how people give different information about a common problem (Kurosawa, Hashimoto, Richie &Akatugawa 1979).


The priest is the one telling the truth in the movie. This is because he tells the court how he met the couple before the incidents. The wood cutter is considered unreliable witness as he is not telling the truth. The other characters in the movie also do not tell the truth as they create stories to satisfy their needs. This is evidenced by the priest’s comment. The priest argues that the dead do not lie. So, the dead man is able to tell the truth unlike other characters in the play. The characters create stories to forget various things. For instance, the thief creates various stories   so as to forget what he did. The thief murdered the husband of the woman named in the movie. As the story unfolds with the flashback of the four characters, the thief decides to cover up the truth by telling lies. He does not want to imagine what really happened. In addition, Samurai’s wife wants to forget the murder of her husband and also what happened to her. So, she decides to create stories. Moreover, the wood cutter wants to forget what transpired that day and these forces him to create stories that are not truth. The characters give contradicting   information as they have created various stories to cover up the truth (Kurosawa, Hashimoto, Richie &Akatugawa 1979).


Reference

Kurosawa,A.,Hashimoto,S.,Richie,D.,&Akatugawa,R.Rashomon .A film. University Microfilms International, 1979





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