Rashomon

I'd heard of this story in concept in my mid teens; when I was 16 to be precise. The idea of 4 people who each have different versions of what happened. I bought a VCD some time ago and finally watched it maybe 3 weeks ago on a lazy rainy weekend. SO was bored silly, it's not an action movie, nor is there much dialogue. But here's the thing.

Anybody who reads this probably has already read the plot summary on Wikipedia so I'm not spoiling anything I hope? The fact is that a man is dead, and there is an enquiry on how he died. There are 3 people involved, the dead man, his wife and a bandit. Each of whom has a version. Interestingly, all versions involve admitting guilt, and yet, they're contradictory. So the bandit says he killed the man, the wife says she killed the man and the dead man says it was suicide. There's a by-stander who says that the bandit killed the man.

As a lay human being, who knows she's watching a movie, I can say it doesn't matter. All the people involved agree that the man is dead and that a bandit had sex with his wife. How does it matter who killed him or why?

But as a part of society, if this were to really happen, there are several decisions which would become very difficult. For instance, if it was suicide, then nobody else needs to be punished, except if the sex was a rape. If it wasn't suicide and the wife killed him in a fit of rage (after having been raped by the bandit and insulted by her husband), then it's not premeditated murder and she might be able to claim temporary insanity due to rage. If the bandit killed him in a duel for the woman, then it's still not premeditated murder, but the wife is also guilty for having urged the bandit on.

In each of these scenarios, the 'truth' is only the judge believing one person's version of events, or looking at the versions that corroborate each other the most. In this case, the story itself does not allow for much corroboration around the killing or indeed the reason for the killing.

So... what would we do in a civil society? Who would we punish and for what? This is the question that Rashomon leaves me with.