Rashomon

despite being considerably earlier than The Seven Samurai, Rashomon seemed more mature to me, less slapdash and instead, subtle and deft. There was too much of what felt like padding, with scenes of characters running or fighting that seemed cleverly-done at first, but then just went on for too long. That said, there were some striking characters and setpieces and the central idea was an intelligent and influential one and once again it’s remarkable how modern the direction seems thanks to Kurosawa’s massive influence on the mainstream, and yet how edgily performance-based the film has to be, how keenly it evokes the stage.