Rashomon is a symphony of sight, sound, light, and shadow, in celluloid. It is an extraordinary motion picture combination: a rarely beautiful film that forms a memorable visual setting for an absorbing drama—as brilliant in its multifaceted plot as a cut gem, as fascinating in the variety of its engrossing complexities as a chess problem, and as penetrating in its study of theoretical logic, human behavior, and playwright-plotting as any picture within recall. (p. 37)

Which story tells the truth—or even part of the truth—is left to the audience. The priest, who listens in silence to the astonishing tale on the steps of a towering, dilapidated gateway leading to the ancient capital of Kyoto, sits in a driving rain, seeking for the secret of what truly goes on in men's hearts. The priest believes that Truth—as the ultimate good that is in all men—will...