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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Last week's quiz movie was Akira Kurosawa's 1950 classic, Rashomon, the film that has justifiably been called "the Japanese Citizen Kane." And like Kane, the many groundbreaking aspects of the film-- especially its narrative structure-- have become so much a part of contemporary cinematic grammar and style that even many sophisticated viewers today don't understand how innovative it was.

(As one quiz winner wrote, "As a spit in the eye to the lame wannabes who cling to the rigid three-act structure shoved forward by various screenwriting gurus, note that Kurosawa's greatest films employ a five-act structure.")

Although the title is actually geographical-- the framing story in the rain is set at the Rashomon Gate of Kyoto-- today, "rashomon" is used in our own language to refer to a situation where there is no agreement as to the "truth" of what actually happened. A rape and murder are recounted by four different people who were involved, and their vastly different takes on the event make it impossible to know reality from fiction. During the filming, both the cast and crew asked Kurosawa what actually happened, and he told them all that, like life, it's impossible to really know.

Although K. had been directing for a decade before it, Rashomon was one of the first with the well-known group of regular actors he would use throughout the decade in all of his greatest films. (The above is a charming publicity still taken outside the studio.) Besides Toshiro Mifune, it also starred Kurosawa perennials Minoru Chiaki and the wonderful Takashi Shimura.

While it was the only film he made with the great Japanese actress Machiko Kyo, it's a testament to K. and the film that, as many classics as she was to later star in (such as Gate of Hell and Ugestu), Rashomon may still be the best movie she ever made. (I'm happy to report that she is still with us, at the age of 84.)

Unfortunately, Hollywood has once again reared its ugly, stupid head and is planning a remake, called Rashomon 2010. (The year is both when it's expected to arrive as well as to "honor" the 100th birthday of its creator.) As one rightfully pissed-off quiz winner put it, "You know Keanu Reeves will somehow have a starring role. First it was the announcement that the Weinsteins are doing a modern Seven Samurai remake that sets the story in Thailand with hired Blackwater type paramilitary contractors, and now this! Thank god I haven't heard anything lately about the Tom Hanks remake of Ikiru."

Yes, let us all pray. But keep in mind: Speed Racer wasn't named after Tom Hanks!

It was a quiz that separated the fans from the cineastes, so congratulations and a rewritten life story to the following winners: Wayne Palmer, Song-Un Lee, Thomas Miller, Mojo Marshall, Vince Tuss, E. Yarber, TMiss, Mick Arran, Michael Mattson, Fred Lorence, Bill Hearne, Nancy Louise Rutherford, ron frigstad, Bob Redwing, Donald Greene, Dave Mallow, Kevin Musolino, and Paul Rignell.

(Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 19, 2008 10:44 PM

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