Rashomon
One of the most influential movies ever made, Rashomon is an enduring masterpiece that served as the big breakthrough for both legendary director Akira Kurosawa and charismatic star Toshirō Mifune, and introduced a radical new idea to cinema: telling the same story multiple times through the POV of different characters. Set in 11th century Kyoto, the plot centers on a grisly crime — a samurai is murdered and his wife assaulted by a bandit — that’s depicted via a series of flashbacks in which the participants each give their version of what happened. When their stories fail to match up, it’s left to the viewer to determine where exactly the truth lies. The first Japanese movie to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this shapeshifting thriller has inspired countless imitators and even coined a psychological phenomenon called the “Rashomon Effect.”