Akira Kurosawa: Every Movie Ranked Worst To Best
6. Rashomon (1950)
Rashomon was Kurosawa's big break. Although his previous films had been hits in his native Japan, his 1950 crime-thriller made him the most popular Japanese filmmaker in the world.
Watching it alongside his other work, it's easy to see why Rashomon was such a remarkable hit. A murder mystery presented from the perspective of several unreliable narrators, it works to unfurl the circumstances around the death of a samurai and the assault of his wife.
An unpredictable tale presented as one long contradiction, it tells four completely different stories and leaves it to the audience to figure out which character is telling the truth. It's bracing, tightly structured, masterfully performed, and a film that demands to be seen again once the credits have stopped rolling.