Similarities and Differences Between "In a Grove" and "Rashomon'

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In A Grove
Introduction
When one explores Japanese literature, Ryunosuke Akutagawa must emerge. Some of his stories, in particular In A Grove and Rashomon are typical representations of the Japanese culture and way of life. These two short stories were combined and Kurosawa made a movie entitled Rashomon, out of them. Besides this, Akutagawa was an exemplary writer. He also was a poet, but he left all these behind when he committed suicide. Rashomon is a story of rape and death, which the author presents from three points of view. Similarly, In A Grove also presents a story of theft, deceit and death, which are core themes in the short story Rashomon. Well, the motive of the successive film, Rashomon, might have arisen due to the similar themes present in these two short stories. Martin Ritt directed the film, which was remade in the year 1964, but the initial film still exists. The aim of this paper is to explore the short story In A Grove, and subsequently compare and contrast it with the film Rashomon (David).
Short Story and Film Contexts
Short Story
In A Grove is an eclectic record of seven witness's testimonies concerning a scenario that involves a theft, rape and mysterious death. Three main characters in the short story include the bandit, samurai and the samurai's wife. Well, a critical evaluation of the testimonies provided by the involved characters reveals their incompatibility, and contradictory. However, the mysterious revelation made by the author is the inclusion of the dead samurai's spirit in the provision of the testimony. While there is an expectation that, the consultation of the samurai's spirit will solve the mysterious inquiry, of who killed the samurai, the testimony by the spirit does not solve. In fact, the spirit also further consolidates the mystery when the spirit confesses that, the cause of the death was the samurai's wife. According to the spirit, his wife did not only agree to run away with the bandit, but also incited the bandit into killing the samurai. This is a story with twists and turns. While the bandit confesses to the death, there is another emerging theme of love, whereby the samurai probably killed himself because of the perceived betrayed love from his wife (Barber and Dreher 301).
Film
The film Rashomon opens at the dilapidated Rashomon gate. This part of the film in a way aims at instilling questions into the audience. Such questions include, what really happened? Whose statement is correct? Watching the film from the beginning to the end, these questions emerge, and the audience must somehow answer the questions. Similar to the short story, In A Grove, the film also presents contradictory statements; hence, the film to a larger degree is in a way expressing the relativity of the truth. Because of this, then, the film proposes that, there is no absolute certainty of truth. This is the same theme emerging from the short story In A Grove. In the two accounts, the truth emerges, but ascertaining the degree of reliability to this truth is in a way distorted. While In A Grove the thief confesses to the murder, which the society can accept based on the prior criminal activities of the thief, the confession by the samurai's spirit...