Write an annotated bibliography featuring four of the sources used in your research essay.

Write an annotated bibliography featuring four of the sources used in your research essay. Each annotation should be at least one hundred words and include a brief summary, assessment, and reflection on the source. For more details and formatting guidelines refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s Annotated Bibliography page.Students must submit homework assignments electronically as Microsoft Word documents or PDF files electronically to Turnitin. Students unable to turn in a homework assignment to Turnitin should email the essay to the instructor as an attachment—he will submit the essay to Turnitin. Deadlines are final. No late submissions.My research paper:The Visual and Narrative Puzzle in Akira Kurosawa’s RashomonRashomon, a 1950 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, became a pivotal work in the history of cinema through its unique cinematography, intricate plotline, and psychological as well as philosophical exploration. Kurosawa borrowed the narrative elements from the renowned Japanese modernist writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short stories, In a Grove and Rashomon. According to Richie, Rashomon possesses “an apparent mystery, an elliptical intent, which fascinated audiences all over the world” (71). The film’s story arrests the audience’s attention as it explores the various perspectives of its characters, thereby leading to confusion as to the veracity of each of their accounts. The director allows the audience to question the claims of each account, thereby providing an active role to the listener. The new role of the storyteller is to make the listener ask questions and take on an active role. Kurosawa has shown the world the significance of the role of the storyteller through Rashomon as the film’s narrative and visual scope expands beyond the cinematic norms of the time of its making. Kurosawa’s Rashomon attributes significant value to the world of cinema that transcends the limitations of time because of its innovative techniques and a subversive plotline that overcomes the norms of filmmaking. Kurosawa adopts a poetic style in presenting the visuals to his viewer. His protracted presentation of the woodcutter’s walk through the woods relays the impressionistic elements of the film. By making use of the sun, the sky, and the natural environment, Kurosawa emphasizes his characters’ emotions and inner thought processes in a stylistic rendering. Anderer points out that “Rashomon…stretched the conventions of the Japanese period film to a breaking point” as he went to the extreme of having his “cinematographer point his Mitchell camera and its high-powered lens straight into the ‘blinding’ sun.” The technique was highly unconventional at the moment. However, Kurosawa wanted to emphasize the natural elements and their relationship with the characters that he was ready to go beyond the norms of the time. Furthermore, Kurosawa made use of contrasting shots. A shot of the woman contrasts with a subsequent shot of the bandit. Richie points out that Kurosawa also makes use of single close-ups to conveying the triangularity of the plot (77). A close-up shot of the bandit follows the close-up shot of the woman and later succeeded by the shot of the husband. Each frame engages in a compositional relationship with another, thus establishing the triangularity. Kurosawa’s compositional techniques also encompass the juxtaposition of vertical and horizontal structures. Yoshimoto points out that the film’s “formal organization can be found in the juxtaposition of the vertical and horizontal compositions as a dominant visual motif” (143). The Rashomon gate serves as vertical lines that balance the screen space, along with the rain falling, the vertical structure, and the tilting camera (Yoshimoto 143). The scenes of the testimony have horizontal lines, superimposed bands of light and dark. One can divide the screen into six horizontal bands, with the witnesses in the front, the sunlit gravel behind them, the woodcutter and the priest in the background. Behind them, a wall divided with three bands of light and shadow foregrounds the sunny sky. Yoshimoto compares the courtyard scene with the scene of the Rashomon gate. They both rhymes together as the horizontal bands of the courtyard resonates with the stone steps of the Rashomon gate (Yoshimoto 143). The arrangement, inconspicuous amidst the overall visual scenario, attributes the film an aesthetic that goes beyond its narrative elements. Even in the forest scenes, the horizontal and vertical compositions play a significant role. Yoshimoto claims that the vertical shapes of the trees coincide with the Kurosawa’s trademark swish pans. These visual elements, which, in addition to attributing “compositional stability” (Yoshimoto 143), also helps in depicting the psychological processes of the characters. Miyagawa Kazuo, the cinematographer of Rashomon, has managed to align the human physiognomies with the alternate patterns of light and shadow. Therefore, Kurosawa’s cinematic venture is not merely a presentation of a dramatic plot for entertainment but an embodiment of visual values that goes beyond the superficial façade of visuals and plot. The music for the film also seeks to break away from the conventions of the then-times. According to Kalinak, the mood of the music in Rashomon are at odds with the visuals (170). The composer arranged music uniformly throughout the film. Conventionally, composers made use of leitmotifs for the audience to identify and relate with specific characters. Nevertheless, in Rashomon, the music remains independent of the action or even remains in contradiction to the action, which creates “disjunctive effects” (Kalinak 170). For example, the wife’s emotionally charged flashback is accompanied by a score that is in contradiction with the mood of the visuals. Another major significant facet of the music in Rashomon happens during the woodcutter’s walk through the woods. The music sounds similar to what a director would have placed with visuals of soldiers marching. However, in this case, it is a humble woodcutter. Also, as mentioned before, the wife’s emotional narrative goes against the action depicted on the screen. Kurosawa and Hayasaka sought to break the conventions of a film score in the west and Japan. The music in Rashomon has a life of its own and attributes internal implications to the movie, blending with the visual aesthetics and plot elements. The woodcutter’s walk through the forest is one of the most discussed parts of the movie. The scene contains fifteen shots with low-angle tracking shots interspersed with the high-angle tracking shots showing the woodcutter walking through the forest. Prince states that Kurosawa fashioned the “camera’s patterns of movement so that they become architectonics of narrative and generate metaphor” (133). He made unique use of the tracking shots to emphasize the woodcutter’s shock and astonishment regarding the discovery of the crime scene items. When the woodcutter comes upon these items, the tracking shot ceases, and the camera aligns with the anxious and alarmed mind of the woodcutter. The moving camera shots alternate with a static one as the woodcutter makes his discoveries of the crime. Thus, Kurosawa was able to achieve visual aesthetics, aligned with the implicit meanings embedded in the narration. Kurosawa’s exploration into philosophical and psychological implications are profound in Rashomon. Its ability to go beyond the conventional narrative structure to delineate a tale that blurs the distinctions of good and bad necessarily reflects the humanistic perspective that Kurosawa wanted to present to his readers. The narration in Rashomon addresses an existential situation where the veracity of everyone’s statement remains ambiguous. Nevertheless, the woodcutter remains the real source of information as he provides a first-hand witness account. He recounts the events from an objective perspective. Redfern states that the veracity of the woodcutter’s narrative is still in doubt as he lied about the knowledge of events earlier in the movie when he discovered the body of the husband (33). Also, he may have stolen the dagger from the corpse of the husband, which makes his account even more doubtful. All these different accounts of the same incident remain to convey human egotism that governs all characters. For each of them, their accounts hold significance while they devalue those of others. In attributing value to their accounts while withholding or distorting information, Kurosawa presents to his audience the extremities of human egotism. The storyteller achieves or wins in the storytelling process when his or her work is discussed, interpreted, and evaluated. According to Davidson, Rashomon is about the defeat and occupation of Japan. The film diverges from the plot of the short story as it does not focus merely on human greed and selfishness. The variances of the film may stand for an allegory in which it represents Japan’s transition from its traditional way to its new ones. Thus, the plotline cannot be restricted to a mere element of entertainment because it transcends its representations to connect to the history of Japan itself. These deep-set layers of plot elements allow creating an intricate structure in which the director lays out a puzzle for the audience to decode. Kurosawa’s expertise resides in his ability to place a visual narrative in a setting that defies the limitations of time and location. Thus, the Rashomon effect has managed to provide the world with a new perspective on human nature while the cinematic technicalities serve to inspire and shape the history of cinema. When filmmakers work by the rules, they create a formula that would hinder the progress of creative and artistic processes. Kurosawa’s Rashomon reveals the need for the filmmaker to transcend the norms and restrictions of the time and use his imagination and creative freedom to produce a visual and narrative puzzle that elevates the value of the filmmaker as well as his work.Works CitedAnderer, Paul. Kurosawa’s Rashomon: A Vanished City, A Lost Brother, And The Voice Inside His Iconibrezova’sSimon And Schuster, 2016.Davidson, James F. “Memory Of Defeat In Japan: A Reappraisal Of “Rashomon.”” The Antioch Review, vol 14, no. 4, 1954, p. 492. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/4609756.Kalinak, Kathryn Marie. Music In The Western: Notes From The Frontier. Routledge, 2012.Prince, Stephen. The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema Of Akira Kurosawa. Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.Redfern, Nick. “Film Style And Narration In Rashomon.” Journal Of Japanese And Korean Cinema, vol 5, no. 1-2, 2013, pp. 21-36. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/17564905.2013.10820070.Richie, Donald. The Films Of Akira Kurosawa. University Of California Press, 1999.Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. Kurosawa: Film Studies And Japanese Cinema. Duke University Press, 2000.