I’ve now seen Rashômon twice, about twenty years apart, and still can’t see what’s so great about it.
My housemate asked: “Is there a Japanese School of Overacting?”
November: And who can translate the title for me? The frame story takes place in a ruined monumental gate on which a sign of three characters can be seen; the third is mon ‘gate’, so presumably Rashômon is the name of the place. One of the other kanji — I’ve now forgotten which — means ‘life’ or (as on Asahi beer labels) ‘fresh’. I couldn’t make out the third.