1. Put Dej-Udom
Mr. Clover
SeniorSem
P.4
To What extent do you agree with Errol Morris or Roger Ebert to their views on Rashomon?
In Rashomon,this storyhas4 eyeswitnessto the deathof Samurai, bandit'sstory,wife's
story, samurai'sstory , and woodcutter'sstory, buteachstory is different.Iquite agree on ideaof
Errol Morris of how everyone eyesthe worlddifferently. Morrisisa search,an investigationor
processof lookingforand evidencebecause of lackof reliableevidence,eye-witnesstestimony
differentperceptionssoitisdifficultto distinguishappearance fromreality.
The evidence aboutthe Samurai murderisnotreliable becauseproblemswitheye-witness
testimony,includinglying.Whenthe charactersargue witheachother,one will notlook inthe
other’seyes. Thisiscommonbehaviorwhensomeoneis lying.Accordingtoa specialistataneye
center,people have anextremelyhardtime lyingtosomeone whilelookingdirectlyintosomeone’s
eyes. (ISEC) Whenwitnessesare talking,the audiencesonlysees the witnesses.The police orthe
court are notshowin the movie. Therefore,the audience has noideaof the expressionof the
personwho ismakinga statement.While Tajomaru,the bandit, tellsthe story,he tries toslap
mosquitosall the time insteadof makingeye contact.Thisabnormal behaviorcouldbe asignof
lying. Moreover, Evidence intestimonyisnotreliable asmovie saysit’sabouthow everybodysees
the worlddifferently.
Each character has differentperceptionsindicatingdifferentopinions. Eachperson’sversion
reflects apersonal desire orpersonal pointof view. (Vande lagemaat)The problemin Rashomon is
that eventhough. The samurai’swife saysshe seeseverything, herstory does notmake any sense,
because itskipssome parts such as afterthe samurai is killed,she appearednearthe lake
unconsciously.Thishappensbecauseshe doesn’twanttotell everythingandotherwitnesses might

2. not wantto tell eitherbecause itmightbe thatall of themare collaboratingtokill samurai,including
her. Expectationalsoplaysabig roll. Aspeople expectthatgirl isweaker thanboyand have more
emotion sothe court ismore likelytobeliefgirl’sstory. Thisbelief isaconfirmationof bias, ina
negative way, noultimate truth canbe found.
Charactersin the storyfail to notice thatfor each testimony,thereisastrongevidence the
viewersseesthisevidencesof killingsamurai bysamurai iskilledinthe differentweapons.The
Woodcutterfindsasword.The womanandsamurai see that samurai iskilledby a dagger. However
there isno daggerfound,sothiscan conclude thatall testimonies are false.Howeverthe
woodcutter’sstoryisa fact eventhough he doesn’tsee the fighting partsnorpeople inthe incident.
Theyalsouse the confirmationsensethattheybelievethat the Samurai hasbeenkilled bysomeone
inthe closed encounter. People concludethathe iskilledbydaggerbecause of notdiedbylong
distance fighting.
Rashomon showsthere isno objective truthbecause of varyingpiecesof evidence resulting
fromexperience. Morrissays“piecesof evidence allow youtofigure outwhatreallyhappened”.
Therefore,everyoneis lyingorsomeone islyingbutthere isonlyone ultimate truth,thatisSamurai
iskilled.
Citation:
International specialisteye center (ISEC) <http://www.isecmalaysia.com/>
Vande Lagemaat,Richard. Theory of Knowledge.Cambridge University2005