Star Wars: 12 Homages To Classic Cinema In The Last Jedi

Kurosawa's classic film was an existential meditation on the nature of truth in cinema and one of the very first films to utilize an unreliable narrator. The entirety of the plot is composed of multiple iterations of the same incident but from a different perspective each time. As a result, the story is drastically altered each time, depending on who is telling it.

Johnson utilizes this same technique to great effect when it comes to the relationship between Luke and Kylo Ren. On three different occasions throughout the film, we are told the story of what happened the night Kylo turned on Luke.

The first version told by Luke paints him to be the victim of the memory. He was but a well-meaning teacher, whose pupil turned against him and destroyed everything he loved. The second telling is when Kylo recounts waking from his sleep to find a menacing master standing over him with a drawn lightsaber. Thus, Kylo's version paints him as the victim of the story, simply fighting back against his murderous master.

The final time we see the memory unfold is from Luke once again, but this time is a more open and honest version. Here, Luke opens up about his guilt and doubt, and how that leads to Kylo's reaction. In using Rashomon's structure for these stories, the film offers deeper insight into both Luke and Kylo's characters and allows us to see their world through their own eyes.