Rashomon effect

The Rashomon effect is the phenomenon of the unreliability of eyewitnesses. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses.^[1] It has been used as a storytelling and writing method in cinema in which an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

The term addresses the motives, mechanism, and occurrences of the reporting on the circumstance and addresses contested interpretations of events, the existence of disagreements regarding the evidence of events, and subjectivity versus objectivity in human perception, memory, and reporting.

The Rashomon effect has been defined in a modern academic context as "the naming of an epistemological framework—or ways of thinking, knowing, and remembering—required for understanding complex and ambiguous situations".^[2]

The history of the term and its permutations in cinema, literature, legal studies, psychology, sociology, and history is the subject of a 2015 multi-author volume edited by Blair Davis, Robert Anderson and Jan Walls, titled Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and their legacies.^[3]

Valerie Alia termed the same effect "The Rashomon Principle" and has used this variant extensively since the late 1970s, first publishing it in an essay on the politics of journalism in 1982.^{[citation needed]} She developed the term in a 1997 essay "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer" and in her 2004 book, Media Ethics and Social Change.^[4][5]

A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography.^[6] Heider used the term to refer to the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.

In the Queensland Supreme Court case of The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2), Applegarth J wrote that:

The Rashomon effect describes how parties describe an event in a different and contradictory manner, which reflects their subjective interpretation and self-interested advocacy, rather than an objective truth. The Rashomon effect is evident when the event is the outcome of litigation. One should not be surprised when both parties claim to have won the case.^[7]

The vagaries of memories and how they depend on one's own identity and interests is also a theme of the unfinished 1963 Polish film Passenger (based on a 1959 radio play), in which an Auschwitz survivor and guard differently recall events in that Nazi concentration camp.

• 1950: Rashomon
• 1954: Andha Naal – an Indian Tamil-language film with thematic similarities to Rashomon.^[8]
• 1990: "A Matter of Perspective" – an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Commander Riker is accused of murder and faces an extradition hearing where everyone's version of what transpired is re-created in the holodeck.
• 1997: An Instance of the Fingerpost – a mystery novel featuring contradicting narrators.^[9]
• 1998: "Bad Blood" – an episode of The X-Files featuring differing retellings of an investigation into Vampire activity .^[10]
• 2004: Virumaandi – the film's narrative presents two competing legal narratives, drawing comparisons to the Rashomon effect.^[11]
• 2013: "The Ashtray" – an episode of How I Met Your Mother that shows the same event from multiple characters' perspectives.^[12]
• 2014: Ulidavaru Kandanthe – an Indian Kannada-language film about five characters telling their different perspectives on a person's murder.^[13][14]
• 2015: Talvar – an Indian Hindi-language film based on the 2008 Noida double murder case.^[15][16]
• 2016: The Handmaiden – a South Korean picture adapted from Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.^[17]
• 2021: The Last Duel – 3 main characters narrating the rape of a knight's wife in three chapters.^[18]
• 2022: Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie – an Indian Prime Video web series.^[19]
• 2024: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – a reenactment of an infamous case uses multiple perspectives.^{[20][better source needed]}

• Unreliable narrator
• Blind men and an elephant