FILM 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Softcore Pornography, Mario Bava, Gagaku
8 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Rashomon was the first japanese film to be extensively shown in the west. After winning the golden lion at the venice film festival in 1951 it was shown all over the world and opened up the world audience for japanese films. Rashomon is both a deconstruction of the japanese period drama and a modern allegory. The film is a jidai-geki, a period drama (the story takes place before the meiji restoration of 1868) but it is a very unusual period drama. It is not a sword-drama (chanbara) and has no spectacular sword-fights. The story is set in the heian-period (794-1185) and not in the late 16. It is not even a film with samurai in it. The husband is a courtier and not a samurai (he does not have two swords, and he is definitely not a warrior). So, in every way kurosawa deconstructs and reshapes the japanese cinematic period drama.
