#rashomans

[claudia-kishi]

leverage rewatch (83/?)

[thesunshinebard]

LET'S FUCKING DO THIS

[merge-conflict]

Sometimes I just like to think about how much I love a good pov change within a larger story because you can revisit the same thing with multiple characters in a way that does some world building and also interesting characterization.

If I say “V managed to track down a few leads about what he was looking for.” It’s clear she’s just executing a task, and doesn’t feel that strongly about it. If I say “Goro found what he was looking for eventually— although only after enduring several increasingly difficult conversations with people he had never met and hoped never to meet again.” Then you know he is not well suited to the task and was in fact bitching to himself about having to do it the entire time.

The trick is just finding what moments warrant the echo. What thoughtless process for one character is another character’s gauntlet of annoyance, for instance.

[cipheramnesia]

I'm presently very enamored of how Tamsyn Muir's written Harrow the Ninth. Laying in bed, practically purring in delight over all the ways it hits some of my favorite things. I'm gratified to have ventured into her works over the general consensus of their quality, despite every other fandom pitch driving me away.

Authors who can swap styles and use the change to carry information about the story are chef's kiss for me. I've only seen it done here or there, and it's not quite the same thing as using a different "voice" for a change of character, but a whole other syntax, which is what's especially striking between Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. Much like the characters, both are good and fun by themselves but together their interplay is transcendent.

Which is another element here that I enjoy, the purposeful replay of divergent versions of the same events (abbreviated over the course of Harrow). Rashoman type stories make me happy. Stories within stories where the wrong information tells you about the world and the storyteller are even more fun. Stories within stories affecting the structure and narrative of the main story are extra fun. The point is, all of this purposefully teasing revision to events as recalled by Harrow is delicious. I have some intuition where it may be headed yet remain excited for further revelations.

All these layers to tease apart, I have to wonder if part of the second person perspective choice in Harrow is to represent the readers themselves in a kind of narrative of reading Gideon the Ninth. We are seeing things from that perspective because Muir wants us to be aware of our own complicity in the story, in addition to immersing us into the body of Harrow in a way which reflects Harrow's own immersion into the material body. We are made intimately a part of her perspective because to write Harrow in the manner of Harrow is only possible from the insides of her.

Anyway, the worlds and characters and dysfunctional relationships are also a pleasure but no one had brought to my attention this sort of warping and weaving of perspective, the way the novels reflect back into each other so that each story becomes part of the growth of the other story. That's the shit that gets me.

And you wonder, do Gideon and Harrow love each other in the same way their stories do?

[myhyperfixationisiforgot]

I'm rewatching the Rashoman Job (as one does) and I'm always so fucking baffled by it. Every bit of context in this episode is nuts. It takes place five years before season 3 - Hardison is only 24 in the San Lorenzo job, the season 3 finale. All five of them were there - implying that Sophie doesn't manage to see or recognize Nate, whom she's know for three years at this point.

Somehow, neither Sophie nor Eliot figure out that 19 YEAR OLD Hardison isn't the well-known Zimbabwean Minister Bioko. Eliot attempts to cut open a man's throat rather than find an epipen, which honestly tracks, all things considered. Sophie also manages to massively interpret Coswell's intentions. Every single one of them - with the partial exception of Parker - thinks that Coswell really was absurdly competant.

What a fucking mess.

[galactic-pirates]

Writing asks: 11, 22, and 31, please!

Thank you so much for the ask!!

11) Three tropes that are fine but overrated Hmm this is a hard question because first the instant anyone asks me to name things like tropes - head empty, no thoughts. Total brain fail. Second, I don't know, I don't like to judge things. This is how I wound up writing Time Will Tell (Sanctuary Soulmates fic) because I never liked the Soulmates trope. So I challenged myself to see if I could write a version I liked and I did.

If a trope is 'overrated' is that less the problem of the trope, and more just the versions being read? Not everything can be to everyone's taste. One person's absolute favourite fic, can be somebody else's 'backspace, run far away', or just 'meh'.

I've been enjoying rambling about the romance tropes that purlturtle picked for the bracket lately. There are some there, that just are not my thing at all. Does that make them overrated? It means they aren't for me.

I'm sorry this doesn't really answer the question but it's the only answer I feel like I have.

22) What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again? I touched on this actually in one of my recent rambles on the bracket. I think I was talking about soulmates and fate, and saying that I didn't like it because love is a choice, and it takes work. Thank Eve Baird for saying that real love is hard and that's how you know it's real. But I do love those two quotes about (paraphrased) "no matter the universe I would find you, and choose you" and "I hope in every world there's an us" and it's sort of like that with the infinite ways the OTP can be together. It's transcendent. It's like that multi-verse spanning love in action. Sort of 'proving' how right they are for each other because they just fit. It doesn't matter if it's canon or AU, canon-divergent etc. Some things are just meant to be.

In other words it's comforting. Bringing order to the chaos of the universe. Saying that in this corner all is well because these two (or three) idiots have each other.

31) What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)? I think I have a "kill it with fire", it's awful, it's unfixable, I can't do this, I'm fed up, I don't want to, I hate it etc. moment with most fics - or at least the longer ones. Although short fics can be buggers as well, especially if they have to be short for some reason. I loathe word limits with the fire of a thousand suns.

I don't know if I can really say that any particular fic was harder than any other. I would probably say that when I was struggling with it, but after? when it's done? The pain is temporary and it's hard to remember after. Each fic brings it's own challenges. Besides if anything was truly too much then it wouldn't qualify for the 'in the end I made it' because I didn't. My abandoned Librarians fic in the structure of the Rashoman Job (from Leverage) attests to this.

(as I'm not sure that I really answered a couple of these I'll tack on another for you)

25) Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go? It is better because there's no risk of writing myself into a corner, and then having to abandon the fic. If I make a mistake I can go back and revise etc. I can post with absolute confidence as I know it's complete. Plus if something goes wrong then it can just live on my HD indefinitely and I can switch to a different project. It's very freeing. Would 110% recommend (I wrote all my fanfics like this from 2020 onwards).

BUT there is something to be said for a live audience. Back in the day when I first joined tumblr/AO3 and I was writing for Rumbelle, I wrote everything 'live'. I don't know if it was the fandom, the time, or what but I got a lot more engagement. There was more community and that was nice. Writing is lonely and what I miss more than anything is being able to talk to someone about my WIP, them being enthusiastic and sort of bouncing off each other. Never posting a WIP means there is zero possibility of that ever which is sad.

Still I would recommend writing it all out first. I feel like it makes for a more coherent story but that's the novelist in me.

[forthegothicheroine]

My followers are often more media savvy than me! That said, with all the discussion about foreign films, if you haven’t had the chance to look into non-English language movies or don’t know where to start, here are some films to check out by genre.

Fantasy: Pan’s Labyrinth, Kwaidan, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Mr. Vampire, The Lure

Film Noir/Crime: Stray Dog, Cruel Gun Story, Le Samurai, Victoria, Lady Vengeance

Science Fiction: Alphaville, Princess from the Moon, Big Man Japan

Paranormal Romance: Panna a netvor, Let the Right One In, La Belle et la Bete

Horror: The Orphanage, The Devil’s Backbone, Hausu, Ringu, A Tale of Two Sisters, M, Battle Royale, Climax, Ju-On, Gojira, Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, Suspiria, Onibaba, Demon, Blood and Roses, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (you can tell I’m fond of this genre!)

Animation: My Neighbor Totoro (family friendly!) Belladonna of Sadness, Allegro non Troppo, Perfect Blue, Fantastic Planet

Violent Period Piece: The Handmaiden, Yojimbo, Lady Snowblood, Queen Margot, Throne of Blood

Accessible Arthouse: 8 1/2, Fitzcarraldo, Rashoman

[imagineanime2022]

Rescuing You (Angst/Fluff)

Dazai Osamu X Reader, Atsushi Nakajima X Reader, Doppo Kunikida X Reader

Summary: You find yourself in need of help when out of the office and he’s there to make sure that your okay.

Warning: Mentions of Injury, Mentions of Robbery, Blood

Osamu Dazai

💀 Dazai didn’t often seem like he was paying a lot of attention to you, he knew that you could look after yourself and more often than not you were the one that took care of any job that you were both on. 💀 You never even thought of him as the overprotective or worrying type, it took a lot to get them to even show that he was on edge, well unless Chuuya or Akutagawa was involved. 💀 You were part of the armed detective so you come into contact with the Mafia a lot of the time, this time however you were tasked with keeping Atsushi safe on his newest mission. 💀 Akutagawa showed up when it turned out that the person you were hired to investigate was working with the Mafia and they weren’t done with him yet.

“Weretiger!” Akutagawa yelled as he tried to slice him in half. “Damn it!” You yelled using your ability to create a shield around you both. “Atsushi call someone!” “Okay!” He yelled back as the rest of the members Akutagawa brought started shooting, you could hear him talking on the phone when Rashoman broke through the shield, slicing into your arm and knocking you into the gunfire. “This is unfortunate.” You muttered ripping your shirt as you run behind cover ripping your shirt and wrapping it around your arm to try and stem the bleeding. “(Y/N)!” Atsushi yelled. “Focus on the enemy in front of you! I’m fine!” You assured him as you grabbed your gun from the holster and started shooting, you didn’t actually have an offensive ability so it was rare that you left the office for anything other than escort jobs but you were the only one that was free today. “Well, well if it isn’t Dazai’s favourite girl.” Your eyes moved from where you were aiming to the voice behind you. “Chuuya.” You glared as you moved to put some distance between the two of you, it only took a second for him to dive forward, you easily dodged the hands that came at you, rolling out of the way of a box that he sent hurtling at you, you laced over at Atsushi and saw that he was injured quite badly. “Play attention (Y/N)!” He yelled as you rolled out of the way of another projectile but as you did a sharp pain shot through your shoulder causing you to stagger as you stood up again. “Looks like you're in trouble.” Chuuya laughed as he lifted a metal pole aiming straight for you as you looked for a way to get out of trouble, you gritted your teeth he had led you into a position where rolling would mean putting yourself in the line of fire.

Dazai had managed to get there just in time jumping out of the car before it had even stopped, he rushed into the warehouse “Kunikida help Atsushi!” He yelled as he ran further in, he caught sight of you and the trouble that you were in managing to touch Chuuya before he could throw the pipe, it came crashing down and Chuuya turned glaring at Dazai who smirked. “Chuuya…” “You move and I shoot.” You informed him as he moved to punch Dazai. “Akutagawa let’s go! The boss said this isn’t worth the trouble.” Chuuya yelled from his place, Akutagawa looked over and gritted his teeth before deactivating his ability and gesturing for his men to leave. “Next time Dazai, I’ll kill her.” Chuuya threatened as he looked between the two of you before finally leaving, Dazai’s eyes moved to you before rushing over to check you over. “What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be halfway out of the city.” You mumbled as he lifted your arm and examined the crude bandage, he took the bandage that he had unwrapped from his own arm and re-wrapped yours. “Job got cancelled so we were on our way back, The boss called us and said that we were closer than anyone else.” He explained. “Well, I’m glad that your here.” You admitted, “how’s Atsushi and Kunikida?” “They’re fine.” He waved you off as he lifted you to take you back to the chair. “Dazai.” You warned and turned yourself so that you could see yourself, they were okay for the most part, Atsushi like you had a few cuts and bruises but for the most part, everyone was okay. “Told you.” He said softly pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “Now let’s get back you both deserve some rest.”

Atsushi Nakajima

🐆 Atsushi worried about everyone when they left the office but that became was especially true for you, he loved you and you wee someone who proved that they loved him unconditionally he was terrified of losing you. 🐆 You were very capable and he knew that, that was why he never voiced his worries, he didn’t want you to think that he thought you couldn’t handle yourself. 🐆 That being said he could never hide his own feelings very well and you could always see that you he was a little worried about you. 🐆 Most missions you werre fine but you were paired with him for your latest one and he was honestly worried, he knew that most trouble was caused by or followed him, he was ure that he was going to put you in danger.

It was a simple patrol around town to see if you could get any information about the latest case but as you walked past the alley, you stopped (neglecting to tell Atsushi) you thought that you could see something down the end and as you got closer you realised that it was a group, they seemed to be cornering two people a couple “what’s going on here?” You asked. “Nothing just move on lady.” One of them called back waving the knife he was holding n your direction but not really paying you much attention at all, he must not have realised how close he was to you because you managed to grab him and disarm him easily before trapping him under your knee. “I’ll try again, what is going on here?” You asked, the other two turned to you now and glared stepping towards you, leaving a clear opening for the other 2 to get away, you gestured for the two victims to run before turning back to the other two. “You let our catch leave, you plan on paying us back for that?” One of them asked and you looked at him and rolled your eyes. “Do I look like I’m going to pay you back?” You asked. “Well if your not going to give anything to us willingly we’ll take it.” He decided as he lifted the gun to point it at you, you watched them before literally kicked their friend at them attempting to distract them but it didn’t seem to faze him very much so instead he got ready to shoot. You don’t even know what happened, the only thing that you did know was that you flat on your back underneath Atsushi who’s tiger form covered the entirety of your body as he growled menacingly at the low level thugs that had decided the pick a fight with you. Atsushi had explained that he and the tiger were very different beings but you couldn’t let either of them kill a couple of idiots because they decided to try and rod the wrong couple. “Hey hun.” You said softly, the tiger glanced down at you but only briefly before refocusing on group in front of you. “You can’t eat them.” It grunted in disapproval before snapping his jaw. “You can’t hurt them either.” this time he growled in disapproval. “They really aren’t worth it, Atsushi and I can deal with this without killing them you know.” The next noise sounded almost like a hum “So can we maybe deal with it?” The bright blue light emitting from above you made you sigh in relief and relax all of your muscles “Hi.” You greeted the boy above you as you noted the men running out of the alley “you okay?” “I should be asking you that! You just disappeared I didn’t know what happened!” He explained as he crawled back so that he was balancing on his heels hands reaching out for your face. “I’m fine ‘Sushi.” You promised. “I didn’t mean to worry you, I couldn’t call out for you, I would have alerted them to someone else being there.” “Mmm.” Atsushi hummed. “He didn’t hurt you did he?” “What?” You asked. “The tiger.” He answered and you looked at him and smiled. “He protected me.” You explained “he stood over me, made sure they couldn’t get to him, had to convince him not to kill them though.” “He listened?” He asked. “Well they aren’t dead.” You shrugged as you stood up “come on we still have a job to do.” “Right.” He nodded as he took the hand that you had given him, he intertwined your fingers as he led you out of the alley to finish what you had started.

Doppo Kunikida

📗 Kunikida was very aware of what you could and couldn’t do, he was very good at judging a situation and worrying accordingly. 📗 Kunikida knew that there were very few things that were going ot get the drop on you but he also knew that you were the kind of person that often put yourself before anyone else. 📗 Kunikida often worried when you were put on cases that involved kids or families because you were usually the one who came out worse. 📗 To make him feel better you always got him to make you flare gun with his ability, you called it your lucky item and promised that if you needed it no matter what you would use it.

You had been sent on another case for a missing child, Kunikida hated it but he had to admit that you and Ranpo made a good team when it came to finding and helping people, he knew that you wouldn’t be able to check in as much on this case because it was outside of the city and reception would be patchy so he wasn’t too worried that he hadn’t heard from you but things changed when he got a call from Ranpo, he was driving with Dazai in the front seat next to him “Ranpo.” He greeted him as he put his phone on loud speaker before throwing it at Dazai to hold while he continued to drive. “We’ve lost contact with (Y/N).” Ranpo said and Kunikida slammed down on the brakes lucky that there wasn’t anyone one on the foad at such a late hour. “Where are you?” Kunikida asked. “I’m with the detectives at the moment I’ll send you our location, we’ll wait until you get here and then we’ll go to the last place that we know she was.” Ranpo explained. “We’ll meet you there.” Kunikida said, he vaguely knew where you were going for the case so he headed in that general direction until they got a location from Ranpo.

You knew that it was a stupid idea but they were getting away with the kid and you still had no idea what they wanted to do with him, if you lost him now there was no way to know if you would ever find him before something bas happened, you knew Ranpo would be able to find them again, it was the kid that you were worried about. “Hey! You guys okay!?” You asked. “Who the hell are you?” One of them asked. “I was um… This is embarrassing, I’m lost.” You lied as you looked at them “I thought you might be able to take me back to the road.” “Lady we don’t have time for this leave before we kill you too.” He ordered and yur eyes widened as you realised that they had no intention of covering their actions. “Well I tried to do this the easy way.” You mumbled as you took the flare gun out from waist band and shot it into the sky while rolling out of the way of the gun fire, you threw the flare gun away and grabbed your actual gun trying to get a look at where the kid was but there when you looked around you could see that they picked him up and started running, you stepped out from behind the tree and try to close the distance but before you knew it you were behind cover again, there was a sniper, you don’t know what was going on but they really wanted this kid. The bullet had grazed your side and you pressed your hand there as you gritted your teeth as you got ready to run. “(Y/N)!” You could hear Kunikida and you were sure that you weren’t bleeding enough to hallucinate. “Kunikida find cover there’s a sniper!” You yelled as loud as you could. “Are you okay!?” He yelled after a couple of minutes of silence, your eyes moved down to your side. “Oneo f the bullets grazed me.” You answered “but they are getting away with the kid.” “Dazai and Ranpo are at the harbour, they were trying to get the kid out of the city, his father is waiting for them!” He explained. “Do you think that the sniper still here?” You asked. “If they were going to leave, wouldn’t he be gone to?” “I’d say so.” He was closer. “Are you moving?” You asked. “Keep talking.” He ordered. “Kunikida you can’t just do that what if you ended up getting hurt? We still don’t know if he’s still here or not!?” You scolded him, just as he appeared in front of you rushing over and gently moving his hand from where it was pressed against your side. “It’s just a graze.” He mumbled as he pulled out his book and got some bandages wrapping your injury before taking your hand. “He’s not here anymore, a shot like that drew attention, that was half the reason I found you, he would have known that, so it’s likely that he’s gone by now.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead “Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

Request Here

[anti-dazai-blog]

4- Even Higuchi’s not safe from Dazai (and other complaints)

I thought the analysis of chapter 4 would be shorter than the average analysis, since Dazai only shows up in the last panels. But Dazai does this cool thing where he somehow manages to condense a lot of Asshole-ry into a short amount of time. It would be impressive if he wasn’t such a horrible person. 

As mentioned in part 3.2, all injuries that occurred during the fight against Higuchi and Akutagawa are Dazai’s fault. He was well aware that Higuchi’s a mafia member, yet allowed Atsushi, Tanizaki, and Naomi to walk right into her trap, without giving them any sort of warning. 

I’ll recap all injuries during that fight, just so you have a clear rundown of the amount of damage Dazai doesn’t mind causing to his so-called friends and coworkers:

Naomi gets shot by Higuchi and almost dies (would have actually died if not for Yosano, so that goes to show how serious her injuries were)

Tanizaki gets stabbed by Rashoman (also a serious injury, and most likely would have died if not for Yosano)

Atsushi loses a leg (and Dazai had no way of knowing it would grow back, since the Weretiger ability has not shown its regenerative capabilities prior to this)

Atsushi, Tanizaki, and Naomi all will definitely have some amount of trauma from this (mental health is very important and I will definitely acknowledge their trauma the same way I’d acknowledge their physical injuries 

Tanizaki was forced into a situation where he had to reveal his ability to the mafia, which is something that can (and probably will) put him in more danger in the future (It’s clear from Higuchi and Akutagawa’s reactions to Tanizaki’s ability that they didn’t know all the details of it. They only knew it was non-combative. And it makes sense that they wouldn’t have known— Tanizaki is/was a high school student before joining the agency, and since he’s 18 he probably joined very recently. He’s not someone the mafia would have a bunch of intel on. But now he lost any element of surprise that he could have had in the future.)

Not only was all of that caused directly by Dazai conveinitenly neglecting to warn anyone that they were walking right into a trap, but he was listening in on his friends and comrades getting slaughtered without doing anything. And furthermore— his timing when he finally did show up was a little too perfect. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was waiting just around the corner for the perfect moment to make his dramatic entrance. 

Now, did he do this for the theatrics of it? Did he wait until this moment to reveal himself because of his need to show everyone that this entire situation is nothing more than a game to him? Or could his possible motive be to make sure Atsushi and Akutagawa’s rivalry progresses the way that he wants? He was listening in on every word said. It’s likely enough that he waited until now to finally save his coworkers (two of which are bleeding out on the ground in front of him) just for the sake of having this artificial rivalry of his own making go the way he wants it to go.

As a side proof for this, we can take a good look at his facial expression when he shows up and nullifies Atsushi and Akutagawa’s abilities. That’s a pretty big (and ominous) smile for someone who’s supposed to be there to save his coworkers from certain death.

When reading this chapter, I was very surprised to find another victim of Dazai’s antics that I didn’t remember from beforehand and definitely didn’t expect: Higuchi. 

Let’s take a moment to rehash something that happened earlier in this very chapter; Akutagawa slaps Higuchi across the face for jeopardizing their mission by shooting at the weretiger when they need him captured alive. With that in mind, let’s look at what happens when Dazai shows up:

Dazai arrives and nullifies the abilities. Higuchi questions why he’s here and how he knew to show up. Dazai, who, up until now, has made his top priority “being mysterious” and never revealed anything to anyone, decides that he would absolutely love to reveal exactly how he knew what was going on. He pulled out his headphones and his end of the listening device from his pocket, and reveals that he planted the other end on Higuchi. 

Dazai, a former mafia executive, who’s surely aware of whatever sort of hellish mafia punishment awaits those who are careless enough to allow listening devices to be planted on them, decides to reveal this information here and now. Not to Kunikida, who asked him repeatedly what exactly he’s doing. Not to Atsushi, Tanizaki, and Naomi, who he watched walk right into a trap with no warning of what sort of fight they were about to face. He chooses to completely neglect the people on the same side as him, and reveal this useful and necessary information in the one and only way that would actively harm someone.

And it would be bad enough if she was just some random mafia member, but she works with Akutagawa. She works with someone who would slap her for nearly no reason. She’s not getting away from this unharmed. And Dazai knows that.

I’ll end this off with some minor complaints. Dazai tells Atsushi to stand up right after his leg was cut off, because he doesn’t want to have to carry three people back—although his leg had regenerated, there’s no way of knowing if he would be able to walk on it right away. Imagine watching someone’s leg get amputated and replaced by an artificial leg, and telling that person to get up and walk on their way out of the hospital. That’s just cruel. But whatever, it’s Dazai.

Here’s another relatively minor complaint, this time regarding Akutagawa, to even things out a bit. When Akutagawa sees Dazai, he immediately starts telling him about the bounty on “the weretiger”. From the way he speaks, it seems like he’s talking to him the way a subordinate would talk to his boss. I wouldn’t be surprised if he subconsciously still sees Dazai in that way. And yet when Dazai hears Akutagawa talking to him in this way, and hears about the bounty, his response is along the lines of “Oh? That’s so cool!” In around 8 chapters, he finally gets around to looking into who exactly placed the bounty on Atsushi, but I’m positive that if he would have asked Akutagawa directly, right here and now, Akutagawa would have told him. Which, of course, just makes his unnecessary trip to the Mafia’s dungeon.. well, a little more unnecessary. 

Join me next week when I tell you all about how Dazai ditches work more often than he actually shows up to work, and if BSD took place in a realistic world he would have been fired by now. 

[tlonista]

Dead Space Aftermath pretty much immediately abandons its "it's totally like Rashoman" premise except for precisely one part: Nolan Stross's girlfriend convincing herself she's actually having an affair with some cigarette-smoking Tyler Durden-looking cool guy.

[zenoparadoxus]

Goncharov work print

With all of the recent interest in Goncharov, I can’t be the only one who had a chance to see the workprint. I was in Film Studies in 1983-84 at UW-Madison and took a one semester course with Professor David Bordwell called “From Script to Screen - Scorsese's Goncharov”. We spent a lot of time going over the script and watching the release film (on a shitty 16mm print) in pieces.

Towards the end of the semester, Bordwell announced that he had a rare treat: an actual copy of an early edit work print. It was not unheard of to make a copy of an early edit, sometimes to show to potential investors if more money was needed to complete the film. These early cuts were sometimes shown in unannounced sneak previews, to gauge audience reactions. Apparently Bordwell knew someone who knew someone that had a copy (of a copy); it was clearly several generations removed from the original, because it was dupey as hell and hard to see for some of the interior shots.

The reason he wanted us to watch it was because it was radically different from the final release cut (or the reconstructed “final cut”) in ways that were striking. Since we’d spent the better part of the semester reading the script and watching the film, in pieces, we were stunned by this early edit. It clearly had callbacks to Kurasawa, especially “Rashoman” in the fluid way the story leapt through time.

There were entire scenes of wide-shots that were completely excised from the released version. I had the release version pretty much memorized by that point, so it completely blew my mind away to see it “out of order”. You had to remember all of the scenes that came before, and so the character’s actions were both fresh and surprising, as well as completely inevitable.

The bridge scene becomes the heart of this version. Over and over again, we’d go back to the bridge, but instead of the same footage, each repeat was a different take: sometimes a three-shot, sometimes a telephoto (like we were witnessing this encounter as voyeurs). The shot chosen for the last return to the bridge is a reverse shot, with Goncharov and Katya talking on the bridge, but show from a distance. We know what they are saying, but all we hear is the rain hitting the water.

Bordwell theorized that this work print is why Marcia Lucas got involved as the editor. There’s no way that the studio (already somewhat unhappy with the film) would ever approve this cut and clearly Lucas was brought in at the last minute to try and salvage something from the production.

[claudia-kishi]

leverage rewatch (84/?)

[ym021]

"Rashomon" by Kurosawa Akira - Blog 4

Today’s film, “Rashoman” by Kurosawa Akira, was a conflicting film to watch. It started off with three men taking cover from the rain storm in a run down temple. I thought this scene was interesting as the woodcutter and the priest looked like they were in a daze, lost in thought. Eventually they told the bandit, who was taking cover with them, about why they were in a confused state. They had to come forth to the magistrate as witnesses to the crime involving a death of a samurai in a bamboo forest. Apparently the one who committed this crime was a well known bandit named Tajomaru. The murderer confesses and admits that he did indeed commit the killing and he was rather proud of the duel he had with the samurai. Along with the testimonies from the two men,  Tajomeru’s confession and the policeman, the magistrate also received the testimonies from the wife of the samurai, who was also involved in the crime scene, and a medium who helped provide a testimony for the dead samurai. 

One of the commentary’s of this film has on Japanese society is the aspect on human nature and moral. The film demonstrates this by showing each of the character’s perspectives on how the crime that was committed. These scenes demonstrates the acts of human nature and moral by revealing the selfishness, desperation, and conflicting emotions that were displayed on the crime scene and throughout the interrogations.

I thought the film was interesting and important to the audiences at the time it was made because of how Kurosawa uses a different type of cinematology which impacted the way people saw film theory. In his film, he uses various of techniques such as using natural lighting to create an enhanced mood and show the beauty of the forest. His use of showing the narratives of each of the characters were non-traditional in the way that it allowed the audience to stay engaged in the storytelling. 

Overall, the film was interesting but it was also very triggering because I watched with no context beforehand. I enjoyed listening to the different perspectives of the crime and trying to figure out if anyone of them was telling the truth in some way or what parts definitely felt off. There were also situations where I was figuring out what might have occurred on the crime scene after Tajomeru left the dead samurai, where the woodcutter was at the scene. I thought this film was triggering because as a victim, I can not handle watching another person being forced just like the wife had been forcibly kissed. I felt like her giving into the bandit’s kiss was like a normal reaction as anyone who is either shocked or felt like they need to defend themselves in a way (the reactions to this could be anything to be honest because we do not know her mindset/personality.)

[merge-conflict]

I really want to do a rashoman style “tell the same scene from multiple perspectives” fic but the problem is that it requires it to be a busy scene with a lot of characters that would be interesting and/or funny to recount.

[readingdiary]

*****

WATERSTONES FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH 1/6/23 - JUNE -  ‘TRUST’ - HERNAN DIAZ

This is yet another book structured around different viewpoints (this time four manuscripts?) My friend Ann and I get a bit weary of these and have read a lot in our 99p Kindle book club. It seems to be the fashion and we are always reading stories which are either told from different characters or from different times and very often it is both.

The Guardian review of this book describes its four stories as being a ‘rashomon’ structure.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/26/trust-by-hernan-diaz-review-unreliable-tales-of-a-manhattan-mogul

I had to google ‘rashoman’ and it is a famous 1950 Japanese film (never heard of it) telling the same story from different perspectives.

Whatever, it has a great poster …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon *****

[godobe]

#amreading #HernanDiaz’s “Trust”—“Rashoman” on Wall Street. 📚 #audaciousbookclub https://www.instagram.com/p/Cez561VLNO3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=