Rashomon effect

The term addresses the motives, mechanism, and occurrences of the reporting on the circumstance and addresses contested interpretations of events, the existence of disagreements regarding the evidence of events, and subjectivity versus objectivity in human perception, memory, and reporting.

The Rashomon effect has been defined in a modern academic context as "the naming of an epistemological framework—or ways of thinking, knowing, and remembering—required for understanding complex and ambiguous situations".{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Robert|date=2016|title=The Rashomon Effect and Communication|journal=Canadian Journal of Communication|volume=41|issue=2|pages=250–265|doi=10.22230/cjc.2016v41n2a3068|doi-access=free|issn=0705-3657}}

The history of the term and its permutations in cinema, literature, legal studies, psychology, sociology, and history is the subject of a 2015 multi-author volume edited by Blair Davis, Robert Anderson and Jan Walls, titled Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and their legacies.{{cite book | year = 2015 | title = Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and Their Legacies |editor1= Davis, Blair |editor2=Anderson, Robert |editor3=Walls, Jan | location = Abingdon, England | publisher=Routledge | isbn = 978-1138827097 | series = Routledge Advances in Film Studies | url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=131757463X | access-date = 28 September 2016 }} See also the citation of individual chapters.

Valerie Alia termed the same effect "The Rashomon Principle" and has used this variant extensively since the late 1970s, first publishing it in an essay on the politics of journalism in 1982.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} She developed the term in a 1997 essay "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer" and in her 2004 book, Media Ethics and Social Change.{{cite book | author = Alia, Valerie | year = 1997 | chapter = The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer | title = Deadlines and Diversity: Journalism Ethics in a Changing World |editor1= Alia, Valerie |editor2=Brennan, Brian |editor3=Hoffmaster, Barry | publisher = Fernwood | location = Halifax, CAN | isbn = 9781895686548 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/deadlinesdiversi0000unse }}{{cite book|last=Alia|first=Valerie|title=Media Ethics and Social Change|year=2004 | location = Edinburgh, UK and New York City | publisher=Edinburgh University Press/Routledge US; Routledge US|isbn = 9780415971997 }}

A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography.{{cite journal |title=The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree |author=Heider, Karl G. | journal = American Anthropologist |date=March 1988 |volume=90 |number=1 |pages=73–81 | doi=10.1525/aa.1988.90.1.02a00050 |url=http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/gleazer/291B/Heider-Rashomon.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717024619/http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/gleazer/291B/Heider-Rashomon.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-07-17 }} Heider used the term to refer to the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.

In the Queensland Supreme Court case of The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2), Applegarth J wrote that:

The Rashomon effect describes how parties describe an event in a different and contradictory manner, which reflects their subjective interpretation and self-interested advocacy, rather than an objective truth. The Rashomon effect is evident when the event is the outcome of litigation. One should not be surprised when both parties claim to have won the case.{{cite AustLII|QSC|174|2020|litigants=The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2)|date=15 June 2020 |courtname=auto}}.''

The vagaries of memories and how they depend on one's own identity and interests is also a theme of the unfinished 1963 Polish film Passenger (based on a 1959 radio play), in which an Auschwitz survivor and guard differently recall events in that Nazi concentration camp.

• 1950: Rashomon
• 1954: Andha Naal – an Indian Tamil-language film with thematic similarities to Rashomon.{{Cite news |last=Guy |first=Randor |author-link=Randor Guy |date=12 December 2008 |title=Andha Naal 1954 |work=The Hindu |url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/andha-naal-1954/article3023659.ece |url-status=live |access-date=21 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221165217/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/andha-naal-1954/article3023659.ece |archive-date=21 February 2015}}
• 1971: Four Times that night.
• 1990: "A Matter of Perspective" – an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Commander Riker is accused of murder and faces an extradition hearing where everyone's version of what transpired is re-created in the holodeck.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ebXhCgAAQBAJ&q=%22A%20Matter%20of%20Perspective%22%20%2B%20rashomon&pg=PA164|title=Rashomon effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and their legacies|publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group|year=2016|isbn=9781138590663|editor-last=Davis|editor-first=Blair|location=New York|pages=164|chapter=Rashomon's media legacies}}
• 1992: "P.O.V." – an episode of Batman: The Animated Series in which 3 police officers recount their version of events about an encounter with Batman
• 1997: An Instance of the Fingerpost – a mystery novel featuring contradicting narrators.{{cite web |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/daily/pears-book-review-art.html |title='An Instance Of The Fingerpost': Many Voices Tell An Intricate Tale |last=Bernstein |first=Richard |date=April 3, 1998 |website=The New York Times |access-date=August 16, 2024 |quote = "An Instance of the Fingerpost" is told "Rashomon" style, by four different narrators, each of whom has only a partial understanding of events and only one of whom makes telling the truth his primary purpose.}}
• 1998: "Bad Blood" – an episode of The X-Files featuring differing retellings of an investigation into vampire activity.{{Cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-x-files-bad-blood-millennium-luminary-1798168550 |title=The X-Files: "Bad Blood" / Millennium : "Luminary"

|last=Handlen |first=Zack |date=June 11, 2011 |website=The A.V Club |access-date= November 5, 2024|quote= This is a Rashomon episode, in which much of the running time is given over to either Mulder or Scully explaining their version of events.}}

• 2004: Virumaandi – the film's narrative presents two competing legal narratives, drawing comparisons to the Rashomon effect.{{Cite book |last=Kumar |first=Radha |url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/49454 |title=Police Matters: The Everyday State and Caste Politics in South India, 1900–1975 |date=2021 |publisher=Cornell University Press |hdl=20.500.12657/49454 |isbn=978-1-5017-6106-5 |language=English |quote=Online commentaries speak of this as depicting the “Rashomon effect” in Tamil cinema, but it is noteworthy that the movie makes no pretense that Kothala Thevar speaks the truth. These are not two different memories of an event, these are two different legal narratives of an event.}}
• 2005: Hoodwinked! – an animated musical mystery comedy film, parodying the Little Red Riding Hood folktale.
• 2010: “The Rashomon Job” — an episode of Leverage in which the characters recount a single theft they each believe themselves to have committed on the same night.{{Cite web |last=Garner |first=Jim |date=2010-08-23 |title=Leverage Review: "The Rashomon Job" |url=https://www.tvfanatic.com/leverage-review-the-rashomon-job/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=TV Fanatic |language=en-US |quote=The true beauty of this episode was the 'Rashomon Effect' concept. While it was a simple concept of five perspectives on a single event from five years earlier, the delivery of those perspectives made this my favorite episode this season.}}
• 2013: "The Ashtray" – an episode of How I Met Your Mother that shows the same event from multiple characters' perspectives.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-24 |title=Ryan Murphy responds to 'Monsters' criticism, says audience didn't understand |url=https://thestreamr.com/2024/09/24/ryan-murphy-monsters-response/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |language=en-gb |quote=If you need an example of what a Rashomon style episode of TV would look like, the Season 9 episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “The Ashtray” demonstrates it perfectly. Critically, it’s a trope that relies on an event being told via flashback from various perspectives.}}
• 2014: Ulidavaru Kandanthe – an Indian Kannada-language film about five characters telling their different perspectives on a person's murder.{{Cite web |last= Prasad |first=S Shyam |title=Movie review: Ulidavaru Kandante |url=https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/reviews/pradeep-kannika-tabala-nani-sadhu-kokila-rekha-das/articleshow/32434762.cms |access-date=2024-08-20 |website=Bangalore Mirror |language=en |date=28 March 2014}}{{Cite news |date=2016-02-18 |title=A cult classic, and then... |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/a-cult-classic-and-then/article8253097.ece |access-date=2024-08-20 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X |first=S. |last=Shivakumar |quote=Rakshit Shetty: 'I’m a great fan of Kurosawa but I never thought of ‘Rashomon’ while writing the film.'}}
• 2015: Talvar – an Indian Hindi-language film based on the 2008 Noida double murder case.{{Cite news |date=2015-10-01 |title=Bollywood's 'Talvar' does a 'Rashomon' on Aarushi murder case |url=https://jp.reuters.com/article/bollywoods-talvar-does-a-rashomon-on-aarushi-murder-case-idUS1288561182/ |access-date=2024-08-20 |work=Reuters |language=en |first=Shilpa |last=Jamkhandikar}}{{cite news |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/making-talvar-was-a-painful-journey-vishal-bhardwaj/ |title=Making 'Talvar' was a painful journey: Vishal Bhardwaj |work=The Indian Express |date=28 September 2015 |access-date=14 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115001338/http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/making-talvar-was-a-painful-journey-vishal-bhardwaj/|archive-date=15 January 2018|url-status=live}}
• 2016: The Handmaiden – a South Korean picture adapted from Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.{{Cite journal | last = Choe | first = Steve | title = Park Chan-wook's Critique of Moral Judgment: The Handmaiden (2016) | journal = Studies in the Humanities | volume = 44 & 45 | issue = 1 & 2 | year = 2017–18 | pages = 20 |publisher=Indiana University of Pennsylvania |quote=On the other hand, the very structure of The Handmaiden may be read to interrupt these pleasures and the sense of moral certitude that underpins it. Rashomon-like, the two parts of Park’s film provide the viewer with two perspectives on the same event. |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/60660162/Global_East_Asian_Cinema20190921-48127-1tg43c6.pdf#page=47}}
• 2021: The Last Duel – 3 main characters narrating the rape of a knight's wife in three chapters.{{Cite web |last=Sims |first=David |date=2021-10-13 |title=Ridley Scott's New Film Plays a Masterly Trick |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/10/in-the-last-duel-men-are-unreliable-narrators/620377/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |quote=The story is told in the style of Rashomon, the 1950 film in which the same murder is recounted by several different characters. But Rashomon underscored the subjective nature of truth; in The Last Duel, each new storyteller works to peel back the self-aggrandizement of the last.}}
• 2022: Parole (2022 film) – the film's narrative presents two competing brother rivalries, drawing comparisons to the Rashomon effect.
• 2022: Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie – an Indian Prime Video web series.{{Cite web |last=Ramnath |first=Nandini |date=2022-12-02 |title='Vadhandhi – The Fable of Velonie' review: Murder mystery becomes the thing it wants to avoid |url=https://scroll.in/reel/1038617/vadhandhi-the-fable-of-velonie-review-murder-mystery-becomes-the-thing-it-wants-to-avoid |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=Scroll.in |language=en |quote=The show uses a Rashomon-like device of presenting Velonie from the subjective viewpoints of the men who are describing her.}}
• 2024: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – a Netflix limited series about the Menendez brothers.{{Cite news |title=Your Guide to the Multiple Perspectives in Monsters |url=https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monsters-lyle-erik-menendez-story-perspectives |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250211065041/https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monsters-lyle-erik-menendez-story-perspectives |archive-date=2025-02-11 |access-date=2025-03-21 |work=Netflix Tudum |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Kelso |first=Abby |date=2024-10-17 |title=Reel Thoughts: ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ utilizes the Rashomon Effect at the expense of accurately portraying the case |url=https://dailynorthwestern.com/2024/10/17/lateststories/reel-thoughts-monsters-the-lyle-and-erik-menendez-story-utilizes-the-rashomon-effect-at-the-expense-of-accurately-portraying-the-case/ |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Daily Northwestern |language= |quote=Monsters” traps the viewers with its expert use of the Rashomon Effect, named after the 1950 film “Rashomon,” which depicts a murder from four contradictory perspectives.}}
• 2025: Win or Lose – a Pixar animated streaming series.

• Unreliable narrator
• Blind men and an elephant
• Remakes of films by Akira Kurosawa{{snd}} includes explicit remakes of Rashomon

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Category:Perception