Philosophical Thought on Rashomon

Running head: PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT ON RASHOMON
PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT ON RASHOMON
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PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT ON RASHOMON
Introduction
Philosophical thought is concerned with the ideas of how one should live, ethics
questions on existence and study on the nature of existence (Habermas 2018). The aim of this
paper is to write a reflective essay about the film Rashomon that released in the year in 1950
directed by Akira Kurosawa. This movie has been considered as a masterpiece a d provides its
viewers a unique visual treat. By weaving together the philosophies of Plato and Machiavelli,
this paper aims to pusgh the discussion about the film further and highlight on the usefulness of
integrating multiple perspectives in the analysis of a text.
Discussion
The spectacular scene from the movie is that there is a man (a samurai) who has been
killed in the grove and there is a woodcutter who has witnessed the dead body in gruesome
condition. This is followed by the priest recognizing that he has seen the man earlier also seen
the attacker. The movie Rashomon is known for its unique movie telling experience,
philosophizing but not in an abstruse language. According to the testimony of his wife, it was
found that Tajomoru raped the Samurai’s wife and left her without killing. Later she untied her
husband but could proceed with conversations as she fell unconscious. After gaining her
consciousness, she found that her husband has committed suicide. This demonstrates that truth is
subjective and it is actually difficult to know what the truth is. The philosophical core of the film
is that the versions of different people are presented as truth. The nature of truth changes with the
versions of different people (Hobbes 2016).The version of truth provided by the medium about
the samurai provides a completely different perspective to the situation that provokes us to think
deeper about human psyche and what actually might have occurred. The woodcutter’s version of