• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.155-162
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• 2019

The characters' voices in the movie, Rashomon mean the absence of memories created by self-consciousness in order to avoid the crisis. The varying statements of the characters and the three spaces: the space of Nakanimon (th e ruins), the representation space as polyphony (the forest), the egoistic space of truth (the guardian), show the social ills of doubtfulness and mistrust among the Japanese at that time due to the defeat from the war. This matches with the polyphony theory of Mr. Bakhtin, a Russian cultural critic. The key concept of polyphony theory is that the voices that do not accord each other are not harmonized but each voice builds their own world and participates in the novel without being influenced by the creator. This study's aim is to discuss two aspects; Bakhtin's polypony theory allows polyphony film s to function as cinematic composition and spatial characteristics of polyphony films in the movie, Rashomon.