I'm going to talk about the Rashomon Effect and Ultimately go nowhere

What the hell is the rashomon effect? We’ve gone over it in class. I kind of know what it is, but I am wondering why it is so confusing and whether or not any of the stories are true. For those of you who don’t have any Idea of what the rashomon effect is then let me explain. The Rashomon effect got its name from the 1950 Japanese film, Rashomon. Rashomon tells the story of a murder trial in which the witnesses give their accounts of the murder. The first few witnesses are the ones who discovered the crime scene or saw the victim before he was killed, but the movie starts to get interesting when the accused killer takes the stand. He confesses to the murder and somewhat brags about what he did, but his story is contradicted by the wife of the victim that tell a completely different story that ends up with her being the killer. This leads the audience to believe her story until a medium channels the spirit of the dead man who says that he killed himself because he felt shameful that his wife begged the robber to kill him and then runs away. The use of the many different contradicting stories about the same event, and then leaving the audience to decide which story they think is true is what the Rashomon effect is. There is no doubt that the rashomon effect is a hell of a way to tell a story, but I think that leaving the audience with no resolution is a stupid idea. This is what I am confused about. I would understand a cliffhanger ending, but many of those are resolved in a sequel, unless you are the people who made the grey who put the most badass scene at the end of the movie and didn’t even show the actual fight between the wolf and the main character. I really hated the ending to that movie. The only closure that they gave the audience was a 30 second clip after the credits that showed Liam Neeson and the wolf lying on the ground, but that has no relation to the rashomon effect. The Rashomon effect just leave the audience is a giant, pardon my french, clusterfuck. After discussing the ending to Hero, a movie that uses the rashomon effect, I had more questions about the movie then when I entered class that day. I thought that the story about how nameless was sent to kill the emperor, but then we talked about the ending in class. Mr. Yee started asking many questions that would contradict which story is true. To be honest I don’t remember what we talked about in class because my mind was tied up like a pretzel. I had to take 2 advils when I got home because I was still trying to figure out what happened in the end. Now I’m starting to think that the Rashomon effect is a good thing now and the real problem is the english teacher who started asking the questions. I am not saying that I hate Mr. Yee, I don’t I think that he is a chill teacher who is more approachable than the other teachers because he understands some of the things that kids of the 21st century face. I’m saying that if it weren't for Mr. Yee’s questions, then I wouldn’t have had a tiny stroke(Not literally). Without his questions I would have gone on to believe that the third story was what actually happened, and I would have thought that the man in The Grove killed himself instead of his wife or the robber. If I had to come up with a moral to this post it would be to not talk to your english teacher about a movie or story that uses the rashomon effect because you will just become more confused and start looking at many different online articles that talk about which story is true. Soon your quest to find answers becomes an obsession which causes problems at home and will eventually lead to a drinking problem, which will lead to your wife or lover start asking why you won’t talk to her, which leads to her leaving you. When your lover leaves you, you get lonely. When you get lonely, you go on a road trip to find yourself. When you go on a road trip to find yourself, you pick up a sketchy hitch hiker on a highway just next to a suburb of phoenix only to find out that you have just let the serial killer that is in the fable that I wrote into your car, which leads to...well you know the rest. Long story short don’t discuss the rashomon effect with your english teacher. It just won’t work out for you in the end. If you do infact discuss the rashomon effect with your english teacher, contact me as soon as you can. You are not alone. We don’t need another exploded mind on this earth. Unless it is one that was caused by this post. Trice’s brain out.