In the movie Rashomon (1950), what were the 2 cities the samuri and his wife were travelling between?

I don’t remember them being named.

You could just watch the movies again and pause. Rashomon is on Netflix.

Have you checked Wikipedia? “The name of the film refers to the enormous, former city gate “between modern-day Kyoto and Nara”....”

Just looked at the synopsis on IMDB.com but it doesn’t mentions the cities.

I checked Imdb, and Wiki as well. Nothing. But I know I heard it somewhere. It is driving me crazy.

Scranton, PA and Katmandu? ;-p

I skimmed the Rashomon chapter of Donald Richie’s book about the films of Kurosawa and didn’t see any mention of the two cities. I didn’t reread the whole chapter. Richie’s studies are pretty thorough discussions, one chapter per film, but they focus more on background, analysis, interpretation, and production than they do on plot details like this. Maybe it’s there, but I didn’t see it.

I did also read something like an autobiography of Kurosawa a few years ago, but again, I don’t remember his being concerned with recording this kind of information.

I found it! I decided to watch the movie again and take notes. I did not have to wait long to find the answer.
According to the priest’s tale at minute 13, they were on the road from Sekiyama to Yamashina. Also. according to the police officer’s story the bandit was caught along the bank of the Katsura river. All of this fits with Rashomon being the south main gate into ancient Kyoto.

I read so much about the movie, watching it a second time was really instructive. Kurosawa makes about 400 scene cuts but they are so skillfully done it is not distracting or even noticeable unless you are looking for them. His lighting, camera angles and movements were groundbreaking.
Whew. I can sleep now. Thanks all.

I think I need to watch this again soon.

I also found the remains of the Rashomon gate.
Nice! I now have the big picture in my mind.

Congratulations. Glad you found it. I did find all the screaming in that movie rather hard to take.

I strongly recommend Richie’s book. It was on my Christmas list one year, and I set a goal to watch every Kurosawa film I could find (a few are not available with subtitles or in accessible media) by the next Christmas. Made it, too. I’d already seen five or six. Some of them are gone from Netflix now.

I watched them in order, reading Richie’s chapters right after (not before, so as to bias my view), and annotating them as I usually do with nonfiction reading. Panting dog! Trained ants! Mifune!

I’ve seen many other Japanese films and read quite a bit on Japan. I’ve seen Japan’s Longest Day twice. I know I will never understand Japanese culture, but I keep coming back to it. Its coherence is one of its most compelling features, coherence even after the devastation of the war.

@Jeruba I watched it on the Kanopy channel on Roku. That is a good addition to your Roku channel list. It’s free and there are no commercials!
You enter your library card into Kanopy and it ties to the videos available in your local library system. I have a card for the LA Public Library. They have lots of classics and “important” films. LAPL offers 9 videos per month and you can check out each video for 3 days. If you have a Roku you should definitely it.

@Jeruba I recommend starting now on some of the great Japanese animated movies. To truly understand the Japanese experience post world war 2 you should see Grave of the Fireflies.

Here is my slightly edited Letterboxd review of Rashomon. I gave it 3.5 stars.

This is an extraordinarily difficult film to give a “star” rating. It clearly is a masterpiece and is a gripping story, which I will mention below. However, I won’t be seeing it again.

Rashomon is about a rape and a murder, and 4 different eyewitness accounts, all who tell the story but tell it very differently. Who is right? From a forensic point of view, it matters, but from the film, it does not. All result in the rape of a woman and the death of a man.

The brilliance of this movie is that it almost entirely takes place in flashbacks. The story is told in a torrential rainstorm and is recounted 4 different times. By the 4th time you see it, it’s familiar, but still different.

Even though this movie was early in Kurosawa’s career, and all of his great movies are to come, I don’t recommend this if you’re a beginner in Kurosawa, as it’s likely to put you off. Start with Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, or even maybe Ran. However, if you are a Kurosawa fan, this movie is a must see, as it is his first international commercial success and is almost Shakespearian in its tragedy and, yes, hope.

@Jeruba I enjoyed it on several levels. I speak Japanese although I have not had the opportunity in a while. It was interesting to me to hear what the characters were saying and how the words were interpreted. The levels of respect Keigo were way beyond my comprehension. That was fun to watch.