The Night We Talk About 'Rashomon' | The Golden Lion No One Intended to Submit—The Day Chance Changed Film History [Cinema Sensei's Behind-the-Scenes Talk]
🎬 Cinema Sensei's Behind-the-Scenes Talk
Stories from the 'outside' of cinema that cannot be fully told in the main Friday review. Behind-the-scenes production secrets, cultural impacts, and episodes only the Sensei knows—this is a Wednesday night aside, quietly told by Cinema Sensei alone. Please enjoy it as a companion to the main feature. There are almost no spoilers. For those who have seen the film, stories that will change how you view it; for those who haven't, stories that will make you want to watch it.
May 13, 2026, Wednesday. Dusk. When I opened the study window slightly, I smelled the damp earth after the rain. I could hear frogs from below the hill. It was a monotonous, yet somehow urgent croaking. The sound of reality.
—Every time I remember the rain in that film, the real rain begins to sound different. Even after watching 500,000 films, I cannot beat the sound of the rain from 76 years ago. Tonight, let's talk about the 'outside' of that film.
The film no one intended to submit
In 1951, a Japanese film won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. It was 'Rashomon.' However, it was not Akira Kurosawa himself who sent this film to the festival. It wasn't even Masaichi Nagata, the president of Daiei. Giuliana Stramigioli, an importer of Italian films, was looking for Japanese films, happened to find this work, and recommended it to Venice.
Daiei itself was not enthusiastic. It is said that within the company, it was evaluated as 'a film where you don't know what they are saying.' Kurosawa himself, in a later interview, described the award as 'a bolt from the blue.'
The film that changed world cinema history crossed the ocean through a chain of coincidences.
The day they said 'there is no script'—Testimony of Shinobu Hashimoto
The process of creating the script was not straightforward either. Shinobu Hashimoto was still an unknown screenwriter at the time. He fell in love with Ryunosuke Akutagawa's 'In a Grove' and attempted to adapt it into a script, but adapting a short story as-is would not make a feature-length film. The structure was insufficient.
Kurosawa, who read the first draft written by Hashimoto, said, 'This alone won't make a film.' But he also said, 'Don't throw it away.' Kurosawa proposed combining it with another of Akutagawa's short stories, 'Rashomon'—the story of a man taking shelter from the rain at a decaying gate—as a frame structure. Wrapping the act of 'retelling' the testimony drama itself in a story. That was the moment two short stories became one film.
Hashimoto later described Kurosawa at this time as a person who can see the invisible. Just by layering two primary materials, a philosophical labyrinth was born.
The sun in the forest—Kazuo Miyagawa's revolution
Kazuo Miyagawa, who was in charge of the film's cinematography, performed an experiment in this film that would remain in the history of visual arts. In the forest scene, he pointed the camera directly at the sun.
In 1950, pointing a camera at the sun was an act that would burn the film, and in the common sense of cinematographers, it was 'something you must not do.' But Kurosawa demanded to capture 'that unbelievably beautiful light of sunlight filtering through the trees hitting a person's face.' Miyagawa devised the angle of the filters and lenses to capture the moment sunlight passed through the film.
The resulting footage became light that was 'as ambiguous as memory, yet vivid' in the testimony scenes. Dazzlingly beautiful light shines on testimony where it is unclear whether the content is truth or a lie.It was the moment the visuals visualized 'unreliable narration.'
This filming technique later influenced filmmakers around the world. Steven Spielberg has described Miyagawa's cinematography as having 'rewritten the grammar of cinematography.'
Did Toshiro Mifune not read the script?
Toshiro Mifune's Tajomaru is one of the performances that remains in film history. He laughs like a beast, rolls on the ground, and swats mosquitoes. Where did that physical expression, where heat, desire, and vanity became one, come from?
It is said that Kurosawa instructed Mifune, 'Don't do it according to the script.' Kurosawa's directing method was unique; instead of explaining the inner workings of the character to the actor, he instructed them on physical actions.'Move faster,' 'Smell the ground,' 'If a mosquito comes, swat it for real.' Mifune was 34. He was a bundle of energy.
It is said that in the scene where Tajomaru rolls around laughing in the grove, Mifune's movements became increasingly larger as they repeated the takes, and it was finally stopped by Kurosawa saying, 'That's it.' Calculated direction and the explosion of an uncontrolled body. Tajomaru stands on that boundary line.
The 'Rashomon Effect'—The Day a Film Became an Academic Term
Among the cultural impacts this film has brought about, there is one that is the most unexpected.The fact that the term 'Rashomon effect' has become established as a formal technical term in psychology, sociology, and law.
It means a phenomenon in which multiple parties provide different—yet each subjectively valid—explanations for the same event. It is cited in all sorts of fields, such as conflicting testimonies in court, differences in the interpretation of historical events, and biases in media reporting.
Examples of a film title becoming an academic term are extremely rare, even globally. While 'Kafkaesque' and 'Orwellian' are established as concepts derived from literature, in the case of film, there are almost no other instances besides 'Rashomon' where a work's title has become an academic concept itself.
A single film has become a term that describes human cognition itself.
What Kurosawa Wanted to Capture Was Not 'Lies' but 'Humans'
I have talked this much, but there is one thing I would like to add.
It is not wrong to call 'Rashomon' a 'film about lies.' However, Akira Kurosawa himself described this film as a film about 'human weakness.' People remake their memories to suit their own convenience. That is not malice, but an instinct for survival.
The reason Mr. Kurosawa placed the baby at the end was likely because he believed that even within that weakness, there is a moment where one chooses something. The woodcutter's motive for taking in the baby is not spoken of in the film. But the 'act' is depicted. Motives can lie, but acts cannot.
Even 76 years later, this film continues to be used as teaching material in film schools around the world. That is because it continues to ask not 'What is truth?' but 'What is a human being?'
Film does not betray.
A film that no one intended to send won the Golden Lion in Venice, a camera that was not supposed to shoot the sun changed the grammar of cinematography, and a film title became an academic term describing human cognition.
—Masterpieces reach places even their creators cannot predict.
That is the kind of story this is.
On Friday, I will talk about this film with Tok. 19-year-old Tok said 'I don't get it' on LINE. Without scouring through analysis videos, he said 'I don't get it' in his own words. That might be his own answer to the words I said to him in the Parasite episode. How will Tok face a film where analytical tools don't work? Honestly, I can't predict it either. That's why I'm looking forward to it.
🎬 Cinema Sensei: On Friday, I will talk about 'Rashomon' with Tok. There is one rule—to talk about what we don't understand, while still not understanding it. That is the courtesy we owe this film.
📢 Friday Release: Film Talk 'Rashomon'
[A Word from the Staff]
In choosing a film by Mr. Kurosawa to feature, I was honestly hesitant. Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Yojimbo, Ran, and many others. Among them, while being captivated by the suspense, I thought that this work, which has Mr. Kurosawa's unique humanism at its core, might be the easiest entry point into Kurosawa's works. Also, I believe this work is where Mr. Kurosawa's depiction of scenery is most effective. His technique of expressing the characters' emotions and situations through impressive natural phenomena. The heavy rain pouring down on the Rashomon gate, the sunlight filmed using a groundbreaking method. Light is also truth, and because there is light, there is also shadow, and down in the forest, people's faces become mottled with light and shadow. Perhaps, just like that, truth varies from person to person.
(Staff/No one knows the whereabouts of the servant)
Approaching the 'truth' in the main episode → 'Rashomon' Analysis (#14) Updating Friday!
Another film that 'leaves it to the audience' → 'Parasite' Analysis (#13)
Click here for the guide & recommended reading
[Fact Check]
✅ Verified Facts
'Rashomon' won the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice International Film Festival
The circumstances surrounding Italian film professional Giuliana Stramigioli's involvement in recommending the film to the festival are confirmed in multiple documents
The screenplay was co-written by Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto. It is based on two works by Ryunosuke Akutagawa: 'In a Grove' and 'Rashomon'
The cinematographer was Kazuo Miyagawa. The camera work directed toward the sun is widely recorded as an innovation in the history of cinematography
The 'Rashomon effect' has become established as an academic term used in psychology, sociology, and law
⚠️ Interpretations and Observations (Various Theories)
The anecdote that the film was poorly received within Daiei is widely known, but the specific expression 'a film that no one understands' is a reconstruction based on multiple hearsay accounts, making it difficult to identify a primary source
The instruction to Toshiro Mifune to 'not do it exactly as the script says' is widely discussed as part of Kurosawa's directing style, but there are various theories regarding direct records of this during the filming of this movie
The reading that 'motives can lie, but actions cannot' is a framing unique to this behind-the-scenes talk
That Kurosawa spoke of 'human weakness' as a theme can be confirmed in multiple interviews, but the points of emphasis vary depending on the context of the statements