Rashomon (1950)

Rashomon is a Japanese movie directed by Akira Kurosawa and based on a combination of the short stories “Rashomon” (setting) and “In a Grove” (plot/characters) by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. It was released in Japan on August 25, 1950.

The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and received an Honorary Award for “most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951” at the 24th Academy Awards.

The story is set sometime in 12th-century, when a a bandit (Toshiro Mifune) is accused of raping a woman and killing her husband. Four very different versions of the story are represented as the bandit, the victim, the ghost of the murdered man, and a lowly woodcutter each give their own account of events.