Rashomon effect

Discussion

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".

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.

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. 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.

A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography. 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 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.

Works using the Rashomon effect

• 1922: In a Grove - the Japanese novel upon which the film Rashomon was partly based.
• 1942: Five Little Pigs - a detective novel by Agatha Christie, in which Hercule Poirot interviews five suspects involved in a murder a number of years after it took place and must deduce the murderer based solely on the inconsistencies in their accounts.
• 1950: Rashomon
• 1954: Andha Naal – an Indian Tamil-language film with thematic similarities to Rashomon.
• 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.
• 1992: P.O.V. - an episode of Batman: The Animated Series where a rookie Officer named Wilkes, Officer Renee Montoya and Detective Harvey Bullock give conflicting testimony regarding a botched attempt to take down a smuggling ring. The audience, however, watches events as they truly transpired.
• 1997: An Instance of the Fingerpost – a mystery novel featuring contradicting narrators.
• 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"
• 1999: "The Can Opener" – an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where married couple Raymond and Debra Barone each describe an argument about a can opener.
• 2004: Virumaandi – the film's narrative presents two competing legal narratives, drawing comparisons to the Rashomon effect.
• 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.
• 2013: "The Ashtray" – an episode of How I Met Your Mother that shows the same event from multiple characters' perspectives.
• 2014: Ulidavaru Kandanthe – an Indian Kannada-language film about five characters telling their different perspectives on a person's murder.
• 2014: How It Went Down – a young adult fiction novel by Kekla Magoon that tells the story of a teen shooting from multiple perspectives.
• 2015: Talvar – an Indian Hindi-language film based on the 2008 Noida double murder case.
• 2016: The Handmaiden – a South Korean picture adapted from Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
• 2018: "The Immortal Hulk" #3 – three different eyewitnesses recount The Hulk's battle with Hotshot through radically different perspectives, each illustrated by a different artist.
• 2021: The Last Duel – three main characters narrating the rape of a knight's wife in three chapters.
• 2022: Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie – an Indian Prime Video web series.
• 2022-23: The Afterparty – an American comedy murder mystery anthology television series. Each episode revisits the central mystery of the season through a different character’s retelling and narrative lens.
• 2024: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – a Netflix limited series about the Menendez brothers.

References

References

1. Davenport, Christian. (2010). "Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party". Cambridge University Press.
2. Anderson, Robert. (2016). "The Rashomon Effect and Communication". Canadian Journal of Communication.
3. (2015). "Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, ''Rashomon'' and Their Legacies". Routledge.
4. Alia, Valerie. (1997). "Deadlines and Diversity: Journalism Ethics in a Changing World". Fernwood.
5. Alia, Valerie. (2004). "Media Ethics and Social Change". Edinburgh University Press/Routledge US; Routledge US.
6. Heider, Karl G.. (March 1988). "The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree". American Anthropologist.
7. {{cite AustLII. QSC. 174. 2020. (15 June 2020)
8. McElhinney, David. (22 April 2022). "The Rashomon Effect: In a Grove at 100 Years Old".
9. "Five Little Pigs".
10. Guy, Randor. (12 December 2008). "Andha Naal 1954". [[The Hindu]].
11. (2016). "Rashomon effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and their legacies". Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
12. Bernstein, Richard. (April 3, 1998). "'An Instance Of The Fingerpost': Many Voices Tell An Intricate Tale".
13. VanHooker, Brian. (2025-04-02). "The 10 Greatest ‘Rashomon’ Sitcom Episodes".
14. Kumar, Radha. (2021). "Police Matters: The Everyday State and Caste Politics in South India, 1900–1975". Cornell University Press.
15. Garner, Jim. (2010-08-23). "Leverage Review: "The Rashomon Job"".
16. (2024-09-24). "Ryan Murphy responds to 'Monsters' criticism, says audience didn't understand".
17. Prasad, S Shyam. (28 March 2014). "Movie review: Ulidavaru Kandante".
18. Shivakumar, S.. (2016-02-18). "A cult classic, and then...". The Hindu.
19. Wright, David. (2020-06-10). "Listening to Black voices: 6 audiobooks to learn from amid protests against police brutality in Seattle and across the country".
20. Jamkhandikar, Shilpa. (2015-10-01). "Bollywood's 'Talvar' does a 'Rashomon' on Aarushi murder case". Reuters.
21. (28 September 2015). "Making 'Talvar' was a painful journey: Vishal Bhardwaj". The Indian Express.
22. Choe, Steve. (2017–18). "Park Chan-wook's Critique of Moral Judgment: The Handmaiden (2016)". Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
23. Schloss, Richard. (2018-07-31). "Reality Check: ‘Immortal Hulk’ #3’s Rashomon effect".
24. Sims, David. (2021-10-13). "Ridley Scott's New Film Plays a Masterly Trick".
25. Ramnath, Nandini. (2022-12-02). "'Vadhandhi – The Fable of Velonie' review: Murder mystery becomes the thing it wants to avoid".
26. "Your Guide to the Multiple Perspectives in Monsters". Netflix Tudum.
27. Kelso, Abby. (2024-10-17). "Reel Thoughts: ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ utilizes the Rashomon Effect at the expense of accurately portraying the case".