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  • Essay / Criticism of society in the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa

    Rashomon is a film by Japanese creator Akira Kurosawa. This infamous film truly allows you to use your imagination to find 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 an in-depth look at how people are willing to lie at all costs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay I will first think about the commonalities between society and the characters in Rashomon. By using four different stories from the same event, Rashomon shows the weakness of society. All four characters, however, share one common idea: they all try to avoid trouble and pretend to be a better person than they really are. The perception of others is all that matters to us and we think 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 people to be honest with ourselves. At all costs, we never consider ourselves bad, there is always a horrible excuse to help us justify our actions. This is when our ego takes over and we do what makes us look good, even if it hurts someone else and isn't truthful. These exact steps are what happened to the characters in the film, they only become concerned for their well-being. They were willing to make up a story and lie to avoid having to feel bad about themselves, all four characters were simply too weak to face the truth. Lack of accountability and public image is what kept these characters from telling the truth about a murder. It may be hard to notice, but the fact is that most people in our society resemble the characters in Rashomon. Upon evaluation, you can see one thing in common in all four of the characters' lies: they are told so that the characters have an excuse for what is happening. In all explanations except the lumberjack, the cashier was described as the murder. They all blamed each other, resulting in no story matching and the truth unknown. The woodcutter is not like the others, he didn't kill anyone but he is still wrong because he stole the dagger, and above all ended up lying to the police. These characters were unable to put their egos aside and all told a false version of what really happened. There is only one important question that remains unanswered: what really happened during the murder? Just like the characters, society is willing to lie about anything and everything, just to avoid being at fault in difficult times. Tajomaru, the bandit, was the first to be informed by the court. With little explanation, he finally said that he did not intend to kill the man, but that he had plans for the women. Even though he himself is the one who actually committed the murder, he comes up with this horrible explanation that the woman is the reason the man was killed. The horrible thing is that throughout the explanation of his story, he makes it sound honorable because he says, "Well, the man actually fought well." » This clever response from Alic was used to try to justify that murder was acceptable. The bandit's goal in telling his story was for us to believe him and make him out to be a good guy. Humans don't realize it.