Rashomon and on Screen and in Short Stories. Literature Essay

Rashomon and on Screen and in Short Stories
Name
Institution
Stories have inspired many filmmakers who have successfully converted texts into images and motion. It is important to note that deriving a film from a story may sometimes lead to an exaggerated version of the original context. This paper compares and contrasts the film version of “Rashomon” with the original short stories it is based on taking into considerations the changes the filmmakers made and the impact or the reason behind the changes.
The filmmaker borrows from two different stories which are “In a Grove” and “Rashomon” by Akutagawa to make a great film. Kurosawa narrates a story using four different characters who tell the story four times, and he has managed to make the audience make their judgement on who tells the truth and those that lie (Kurosawa,1950). The cinematography is incredible and flexible to represent what goes happens in every scene — the story about the statements regarding the murder of the samurai warrior and his wife where everyone gives a different perspective including the dead man.
The short stories and the film are similar in that the characters involved in giving the statements met at the gatehouse, and both take the story back to the scene of the murder. The flashbacks are also evident in both the book and the film. However, Kurosawa's film version exaggerates the story (Kurosawa, 1950). Generally, images have replaced the words "In the Grove", and the images can make an audience more trusting, especially the devastation and terror in the witnesses' faces (Kurosawa & Richie,1987). Other areas that the film derives from “In a Grove” are the dramatic monologue style of the story such as the scene of the Woodcutter’s first story, which is integrated within the first person narrative and further includes ...