Rashomon (DVD)
A riveting psychological thriller that investigates the nature of truth and the meaning of justice, Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accounts of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife, which director Akira Kurosawa presents with striking imagery and an ingenious use of flashbacks. This eloquent masterwork and international sensation revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema—and a commanding new star by the name of Toshiro Mifune—to the Western world.
Rashomon was restored by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. Funding provided by Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation and The Film Foundation.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
- Interview with director Robert Altman about Rashomon
- Excerpts from The World of Kazuo Miyagawa, a documentary on Rashomon’s cinematographer
- A Testimony as an Image, a sixty-eight-minute documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Archival audio interview with actor Takashi Shimura
- Original and rerelease trailers
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film historian Stephen Prince; an excerpt from director Akira Kurosawa’s Something Like an Autobiography; and reprints of Rashomon’s two source stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” and “In a Grove”
New cover by Kent Williams