Rashomon
Dir: Akira Kurosawa
1950
*****
Rashomon is visually stunning, particularly the composition used during the court hearing scenes and the scenes with the three men sheltering from the rain. I'll be honest, it's not my favourite Kurosawa film but it is probably my favourite Toshiro Mifune performance (although I love him in everything he's done). Ultimately it's ever so slightly spoiled for me by an 'over acted' introduction which reels you in but is a little misleading. However, this is another great example of a genre invented by Kurosawa that's ideas and structure that has influenced cinema ever since. Much like Seven Samurai, it was remade into a Western (The Outrage) - a genre Kurosawa himself was influenced by.