Rashomon

Kurosawa's Rashomon can be viewed any number of times with a fresh perspective. This was my first. I guess that I never really understood all those references. Three different people see the same event, proving that there are at least three stories of what really happens, yours mine and what really happens. Even although only one day has past, each seeing the event from their own perspective describes it quite differently. All agree that the husband was tied up and died, but do not agree on who killed him.The thief Tajomaru describes how he planned to rape the wife, but she gave into him. She begs him to duel with the husband to cure her shame of knowing two men. He recounts his heroic fight with the noble, resulting in a dignified death. The women runs away.
The wife sees herself as raped by the thief and abandoned by the husband. The husband wants no part of her and looks at her with cold eyes. She faints and wakes up to find him dead.
The husband sees a betraying wife and a noble suicide
But the third party only sees betrayal and mistrust on all sides. The fight was a cowardly one and death ignoble. The end tries to deliver some kind of upbeat message, but it is too late to salvage the low view of man.