What It's About:

In medieval Japan, man and wife on horseback have a chance encounter with a thief in the woods. Ultimately, the man is murdered, the wife raped. Beyond the reality of these events, precise circumstances are more difficult to establish, since all recollections of the incident differ markedly.

Why I Love It:

Kurosawa's ingenious breakthrough feature examines the elusive nature of truth, and our ability to reshape it to suit what we want to believe. Brilliantly composed and shot, the film's dreamlike quality is hypnotic. Rashomon, often the first Japanese film a post-War America was exposed to, remains after nearly sixty years an indelible cinematic triumph, unlike most anything else you'll ever see.