Rashomon / Glenrothes Bourbon Cask Reserve

0:00 In 1950, director Akira Kurosawa and star Toshiro Mufune gave the world a convoluted retelling of crimes committed and feudal Japan. In 2023 we take a trip to our favorite region in Scotland and Brad. This has absolutely nothing to do with the film of the day. The film is Rashomon. The whiskey is the Glenn Rose Bourbon Cask, and we'll review them both. This is. The Film and Whiskey Podcast Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

0:54 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And it is finally time. Brad. You have been building this moment up for yourself in a way that I fear can only let you down. But we have built to Akira Kurosawa Film and Whiskey Nation. This is the first set of films we have ever done that are in a language other than English. We're doing 5 movies by Kurosawa, all of them very obviously Japanese films. It is really, really great, Brad, to finally get into the world of international cinema on film and whiskey. I'm really excited for this man. Yeah, I am super excited as well. I've been waiting for Chris are for a very long time.

1:37 He has been built up for me, not just by myself, but by you and anyone else who loves cinema. So there are there are some big shoes to fill in, in my imagination at the very least. Let me ask you this, Brad. So I mean, and it's very possible that a lot of people listening to this episode may not have ever heard of Akira Kurosawa before this episode. And so we'll get into talking about why he's such an important figure in cinema. About a year ago, you made a big purchase, Brad. It was your first trip to Barnes and Noble to get yourself some Criterion Collection movies during their big summer sale. And I was so proud of you for finally investing in physical media.

2:19 And one of the movies that you bought for yourself was 7 Samurai, a movie that we're going to be doing next week. And I remember saying at the time, like, why did you do this, Brad? You've never even seen this movie. Isn't it really, really putting your trust in a guy that you're going to like this movie? And I like, I remember you kind of saying like, yeah, I mean, everyone says it's great, But, you know, to be fair, I tell you that every movie on this podcast is great and you know. It's a it's kind of a crapshoot sometimes, whether you'll think a movie is great or not. So what made you invest in Kurosawa before you ever saw a Kurosawa? I think a large part of it was the fact that, you know, and I mean really, the first time I probably ever heard of Kurosawa was 7 Samurai, and it was in reference to Star Wars.

3:09 You know, Star Wars is famously, you know, loosely based off of Seven Samurai and a lot of other sources. But that's what I had always heard that, you know, the the hero's journey, if you will, was best illustrated in Seven Samurai, and that Lucas took that as a huge inspiration. And so I was intrigued. I was like, hey, it's a foreign film. I'm turning into a film nerd. I might as well buy me some Kurosawa. Check out Seven Samurai. That's awesome. I hate to shoot down your your brilliant little story there, but the movie that Lucas actually lifted. For Star Wars is another Kurosawa film called The Hidden Fortress, which is like the first half of The Hidden Fortress is like Beat for Beat. You know, the first, or you know, like the back half of of A New Hope.

4:01 So there's another one for you to pick up at the next Criterion Sale. But that all depends on whether or not you actually liked watching a Kura Kurosawa. This is your first Kurosawa film, I know for a fact. Brad, I don't even really need to ask you if you've seen any of these before. We're starting with Rashomon, his 1950 film, which really put him on the map globally. This is a movie that it won festivals in Europe and then it comes to America. It wins a special Oscar for Best International Film in 1950. It gets nominated, I believe, in at least one other category where it's in contention against, you know, American films. This is a huge breakthrough. And, you know, just to set the historical stage, we're talking about five years after the end of World War 2. Like the the effects of World War Two are still very much being felt, especially in Japan, as they're rebuilding. But the tensions that we had as Americans with the Japanese throughout World War Two are starting to just barely come down a little bit.

5:02 And here you have this guy who's breaking out on the stage of world cinema and putting Japanese movies on the map. He really was an ambassador. For bridging the cultures of America and Japan and doing it in a really kind of hot political climate after World War 2, Yeah, I was going to say, you know, just a few years after World War 2, pro Japanese sentiment probably wasn't at an all time high, you know, So the the the fact that he's able to jump into American mood, well, I wouldn't say he probably attracted the average moviegoer, but at the very least, all the cinephiles really loved him, I'm sure. Yeah, 100%.

5:46 All right, man. So I think this is a good spot for us to just go right into our first segment of the day, which we call Brad explains. Brad's gonna give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time. This is his first time seeing Rashomon. This is a doozy, man. I'm I'm interested to see how you frame this, and I don't have anything else to say. You have 60 seconds on the clock. Break down this movie and go Rashomon is a film about a priest, a local lumberjack and a commoner that meets in the middle of a rainstorm, and the lumberjack and the priest are telling the commoner this story about a woman who was raped, samurai who was murdered, and a bandit who was captured for those crimes. They share how the each person has a different perspective on the crime, and they tell the jury, the judge and jury different stories.

7:00 And at the end of the film, it turns out that the lumberjack actually saw the crimes but didn't tell it because he stole one of the valuable daggers from the scene of the crime. But then he takes care of a baby, so it's all okay the end. That was the most abstract version of like, I feel like if you haven't seen this movie, then all of the words you just said. Feel so unrelated to each other. I love it. All right, here's the deal. Crime happens. People tell their own versions of the story that they want others to hear. End of story. That's, yeah, there you go. That like is there anything else? Is it? Is there anything? Else, No. That's a really good summation.

7:41 Man, you did it in four seconds. I'm very proud of you. I appreciate it. You really should be writing for Cliffs Notes at this point, Brad's notes. All right, man, let's talk about this movie a little bit. And I've been thinking about how to dive into the film. You know, obviously we're going to talk performances. We're going to talk Kurosawa and what we noticed about him, even even as the first film of his, we're going to review. But I want to talk a little bit about the way the movie is structured, the way it's been ripped off for years and years and years, and it's really famous for this idea of. Conflicting perspectives on a central crime or incident, right? Like, you hear from everybody's point of view, and a lot of times these movies are quietly wrapped up at the end with like, here's what really happened, you know? And in this movie, you don't really get that. There's four perspectives on the same event. And at the end of the movie, you are left with no clearer of a picture of what actually happened in that story than you were at the beginning.

8:46 Now, Brad, I think we'll dive into like the actual mechanics of the story and everything like that, the and the idea of competing perspectives. But the very first thing that stuck out to me watching this movie is this idea of a story within a story. And it may just be because, you know, a few weeks ago I went to see the new Wes Anderson movie, and that dude is just burying stories within stories within stories at this point. But I was thinking about The Grand Budapest Hotel and how. It like the central story in the movie is like at least two layers deep. And it kind of feels like that in this movie. Like the, you know, the central characters of the Crime Story are embedded within this larger framing device of these three guys caught in a rainstorm. Just basically, you know, shooting the and saying like hey.

9:42 And here's a story that rocked me to my core. You want to hear it? And I just love when a movie is framed like that. There's just something about like, do you want to hear a good story as you're framing device? Yeah, no, I I agree with you. I think that the the way that they're able to interact with the story and play with it as characters within the movie observing the story makes makes for a really neat storytelling device. But is there a butt coming? No, I don't think there's a butt. Honestly, my brain just kind of farted on me and I don't remember what I was going to say. I had a thought as you were speaking, but then you talked for so long I. Did talk for a long time, but see, that escaped me.

10:24 That's how you win, Brad. You just keep talking and then there's nothing to argue with anymore. Why? Why would you say that? You're you're winning today as if I'm going to lose. Well, I just Who's to say that we're on opposite sides of the argument, Bob? I think I've been around you long enough that I can tell when you're holding. Something back and you're waiting for the chance to like, throw down that Uno, you know what I mean? Like, make me pick up 28 cards and I just, I feel like it's coming. So let me ask you this, Brad, just just straight up, How did this movie work for you? Dude, I knew this was coming. So here's the thing. The story felt like Akira Kurosawa spent a year or like three years reading the Book of Ecclesiastes over and over and over again. And then he turned it into a movie. So like story wise, I I think that he's doing something really interesting here.

11:25 Acting and cinematography and sound and everything else was not my favorite. So like the the story is great. The movie he put forth on the screen was not great. Wow dude. I I disagree so hard with you right now that I don't know where to start. How? How hard do you disagree? Like, so I kind of sensed that you were gonna not jive with the acting in this movie because it's the first of all. It's the first Curse Island movie we're watching. It's not your first foreign film, like just a couple weeks ago. We were talking about how you watched The Bicycle Thief, right?

12:11 And that's a movie that is from the Italian neorealist genre. Like it's the director used nonprofessional actors. It's very naturalistic. It's like set immediately post war, not over. It's incredible. It's not overwrought, yeah. And I think that it feels very modern as a result, right? Like it feels like. Almost like an indie movie would feel. This is the opposite of that. This is like incredibly heightened theatrical. You can see the influence of like kabuki theater on these stories that Kurosawa tells. And I think it's going to be interesting Brad, as we move forward because like I've I've very specifically also selected movies that are not set in like samurai times and the ones that are set. In modern day are not acted the same way as the ones that are set in modern times.

13:05 And it's like it does feel like it's a very intentional decision to have his actors act with such a physicality in these movies. So I didn't expect it to work for you. What I'm really going to dig my heels in on those. Like this is one of the most beautifully shot movies we've ever watched in this podcast. Every single shot in this movie. Is like a perfect shot, dude. What do you mean you didn't like the cinematography? I didn't think it was very engaging. Oh my God, it. He chooses to linger on certain scenes for way too long, and then he goes way too quickly in other sequences.

13:47 And the acting within what you see on the screen takes away from anything that you could see from the camera movement from what he's doing. Like it, It just feels like there's a ton of different clashing things. Like his camera style is often very smooth, He kind of smoothly moves through zooming and panning and and and works the camera in a really nice way. But while he's doing that, you have our our star Toshiro just like jumping up and down like a buffoon and it it just never works well together. It's always clashing and I don't think it it serves to tell a good story. So yes, Bob, I don't find it very engaging. So it seems like you actually do like the cinematography, but you feel like the acting distracts from it. Well in parts, but then in other parts the cinematography is just boring.

14:44 It's just rain falling on the ground. For this movie is like 85 minutes long and it moves really quickly. Dude, I don't like so OK, let me start here. I was thinking about this as I watched the movie. This movie came out the same year as Sunset Blvd. and All about Eve. Those are, I think, the other two 1950 movies. Two of my favorite movies. Think. About the way those movies are paced, think about the way that you transitioned from scene to scene in Hollywood in 1950. Like there was a slow dissolve from scene to scene. And you watch a movie like this and like the editing and.

15:28 And for me it's the cinematography and the editing combined. But like, there are hard cuts between scenes. There are hard cuts. Like, he always cuts on motion. So like, I'm thinking there's a really specific shot in the wife's tale where she's talking about how she approaches her husband with the knife and you kind of see her lunge with the knife and then it cuts to her in that exact spot. It's a match cut. In front of the courtroom and I'm like, wow, dude, that is like 30 years ahead of its time. Like people weren't cutting like that until, you know, the the at least the 1960s and 70s in America. Like it is a revolutionary way of cutting a movie. And I think that like every single shot in this movie, whether it's a static shot where there's movement happening across the screen, like Tashiro Mifune. You know, jumping up and down like a buffoon. Or if it's a if it's one of these really elaborate moving cameras that are very clearly where Steven Spielberg gets the One.

16:32 Or from, like, if there was anything I thought we'd talk about today, it's like, oh, this guy moves the camera better than anyone except maybe Spielberg. And I can see how Spielberg was influenced by him. Yeah, you can. You can 100% see that there's a few specific shots in this where the camera is moving in such a way where I'm like, Oh yeah, they're like this is Spielberg, like you. You can see it in a heartbeat. So yeah, no, I'm I'm with you. The the camera work can be good at times. Man, you are like really playing it close to the. I don't know if it's because you don't want to, like, offend me or if you just don't have much to say about the movie. I I feel like I've said a lot about the movie so far, Bob.

17:15 Well. That's good. All right, let's talk about the acting. Because it sounds like you weren't a fan of it. So do I make you aware of upon whom you when you stunt to Shiro Mfune? Or should I just let you stun him? I mean that, Bob. You're you are your own unique soul. You are an agent of your own fortune. You have your own free will. You do whatever you want to do, man. All right, so Toshiro Mifune is perhaps the biggest star in the history of Japanese cinema, and it's mostly because of his collaborations with Kurosawa. I think they made 16 movies together.

17:55 He was not the most utilized actor that Kurosawa used. That would actually be Takashi Shimura, who plays the woodcutter in this movie, who I think is just absolutely fantastic. But Mifune is a really interesting actor because. When he is not made-up to look like a crazy person, he really does have like matinee idol good looks. He is like a really good looking dude and if you see him in some other Kurosawa movies, he is like a chameleon. He really can become this like low down in the mud thief kind of guy in Rashomon. And then he could be a very upper crust kind of person in a movie like High and Low, which we'll watch in a little while here. I really love his ability to blend in and out of those type of roles.

18:42 I'm with you a little bit, Brad. I don't think it's a bad performance and it's like one of his iconic ones, but I like it when Mifune goes subtle more than when he goes and and he kind of just does that throughout the movie and like it works and it's going to work again next week in Seven Samurai because that's his character there. And it it works really well in one of my favorite Kurosawa movies, which is called Throne of Blood, which is a take on Macbeth. And he's freaking great as a guy losing his mind as Macbeth. But there is something to be said of like, you know, sometimes you can be a little bit more subtle than this too. So you know, yeah, I think what I realized about halfway through the film was that I was seeing as best as I can tell because I haven't watched Japanese cinema or animation or anything. I I've watched just enough anime to see the origin of anime in this movie.

19:43 Like the acting in this feels like a live action anime set piece over and over and over again. And I just, I So for those of you anime watchers out there, I have watched Attack on Titan and I've watched the first season of that so oh and and I'm sorry, I have watched One Punch Man. I was going to say I know you've recommended that one to me before. One Punch Man is one of the funniest things I've ever watched. Attack on Titan Season One is a great story. But the only reason I'm watching it is because my best friend really, really, really wants me to.

20:24 And the the the overwrought, dramatic nature in which Attack on Titan represents itself is seen here in Rashaband, and I frankly can't stand it. I like it. Just feels. So self serious and so ridiculous and so like I don't need my movies to be like a perfect representation of real life. Like I like I understand that the movies you can heighten certain things to illustrate stuff that goes on in real life that you might not always see. So I like, I get it.

21:04 Movies don't have to be a more right where it where it's so realistic that it's just no fun at all. But I think we've swung from a more on one side of the pendulum to so far on the other side that I I just it. It's just so ridiculous. The acting style from the wife to the to to the bandit to the Samurai. And like the Samurai probably has some of the few moments that I like the most. Like when he's looking down at his wife with contempt in her story. I like, got the chills and I'm like, I need more of that. I need more acting like that. Not what the bandit is doing, jumping up and down and laughing like a buffoon.

21:49 I'm going to disagree with you on the wife though, because I actually think that her performance, her name is Machico Kyo. She was my favorite performance in the whole movie, I think because she has the task. You know, I'm going to keep comparing this movie to movies we've watched this season, and I love it when you start finding themes in between these movies. But, like, think about a movie like Memento, and it's it's kind of crazy that this movie would line up right after our Nolan miniseries, but it makes a lot of sense with all the manipulation of time. But I think about, like, Carrie Ann Moss's performance in Memento, and we talked about how, like, I'm not crazy about that character, but that was a hard role to play because you had to play it a whole bunch of different ways.

22:32 And we said the same thing about Rebecca Hall in The Prestige. I feel that way about her in this movie because from story to story, the person with the most layers to their performance, I think is her because sometimes she's just straight up evil. Sometimes she is a woman caught in, like, I just got raped and now this guy's threatening me that if I don't marry him, he's going to murder me. So it's fear. Then there's like the the idea of saving face. Then there's the idea of like my husband doesn't love me or, you know, he has contempt for me and I think she plays. The honor and shame culture. Yeah, it's like super huge. I think she plays all those notes like pitch perfect, man.

23:16 See. But even there like so I agree with you. When you go from story to story, the part that I struggle with is, and this is I think it comes back to the writing within one story. So like when you get the medium holding the seance. To bring the voice of the dead samurai back which fun fun twist when you move into mediums and ghosts and and all that great time when he is telling his story and she like belittles both the bandits and the samurai and like rips into them like she does a great job. It's incredible she, like, transforms into this evil femme fatale as as you would put it for Carrie Anne Moss. And then immediately Withers back into this like weeping shivering mess and and I just, I'm like, what? What's going on with the writing here? Why does her character lay into them? And then the two men have like the wobbliest fight ever. That's just it just doesn't fit.

24:26 It doesn't make any sense. And then you go back to her and she's like, shivering in the background, like, Oh my goodness, what's going on? I'm like, whoa, whoa, you can't have it both ways. You can't have her be all vicious and evil and then suddenly be terrified again like. But I think that's supposed to be like a visual representation that like none of these narrators are reliable. Like, even within their own stories, their characters are acting in contradictory ways. Like she's evil one minute and then cowering the next. And you know the the samurais are are wobbly in their fight because this is, you know, the quote, UN quote truth version, right? Like you have all these versions where they valorize themselves, but here's the quote, UN quote truth version. And then even at the end of that one you find out that's probably not the truth.

25:12 Like, I think they they have events happen in each telling that are contradictory within that own little mini story to help tip you off as an audience that like this doesn't make sense. I don't believe this anymore. See, and that's the point where at like philosophically I just disagree with this movie. Like, like on a very deep level, I I get it. It's the most postmodern movie we have ever watched. No, I don't know about that. What do you mean you don't know about that? Postmodernism is the idea that every modern has as you. Well, I this movie is the single most postmodern movie we have ever watched on this podcast. Literally the entire movie is everyone has their own perspective.

26:04 Postmodernism is everyone has their own perspective. Like like that's where this movie lies. And so I I'm with you. Everybody has their own perspective that's that's great and fine, but if you just use that to justify. Ridiculousness in a movie that doesn't really seem to fit with what's going on. Then I I'm just kind of, I'm checked out. That's interesting. Yeah. I just think that you're, you're interpreting this movie in a different way than I am. You know, let's take a really lighthearted example. So, like, every time Barney Stinson tells a story on How I Met your Mother, there is a moment in that story where he says something.

26:47 And then the rest of the gang is like, ah, you almost got us that time. You know, like every time Ted's mom tells him your penis is enormous, You know what I mean? Like, then it cuts back and they're like, ah, we've. I thought I was really going there. Like, there's an insertion of something that breaks the logic of that that mini story, right? But that mini story doesn't necessarily become the focus of the movie, right? And that's why I started talking about this whole framing device. Because to me, the message of this movie is not everyone has their own perspective, period. Full stop. It's that sometimes things happen in a world that is broken that we will not be able to get to the bottom of.

27:29 And sometimes there are just really, really awful, tragic things that happen that we cannot explain. I think about, you know, you were using a biblical example earlier, Brad. I think about the Tower of Soloam in the Gospels and this idea that, like, people came up to Jesus and wanted to know, like, what's the cause of this? Who sinned to cause this? Like, we need an explanation for this. And there's not really one, you know. And I think that in this movie in particular, everyone is despairing at the end of the movie, and everyone's falling into selfishness as a result. And you see that from this commoner who, like, steals a baby's kimono and then accuses everybody else of being like, you're all just as selfish as me.

28:14 So let's just, like, live it up and do what we can to survive. And the central question of the movie is like, you may not know the truth. You may not know what happened in this central little fable that we're trying to tell here. But how are you going to live as a result? What are your morals and what are you going to stand on and how are you going to restore your faith in? In this movie they say faith in humanity, but it could be your faith in whatever. And I actually find that to be like the opposite of a postmodern messaging at the end of the movie. It's not saying that all truth is equal, it's not saying that all perspectives are equal.

28:55 In fact, it's saying like none of these perspectives are true and everyone was bullshitting. And like you can either become very nihilistic about that or you can choose to latch onto something more than that in in in effect. It's a lot like the ending of Fargo, I think. For me, Brad. Where somebody gets shoved into a wood chipper. No, where you have the ending with Marge and her husband. You're just trying to screw with me today, man. When I When I think about the ending of Fargo, the first thing that pops into my head is is the wood chipper. I'm sorry, I'm with you the the end. The actual ending of Fargo is incredible. But my brain went straight to the wood chip man. I tell you what, sometimes I give like the best 2-3 minute little mini sermons here on this this year podcast and you give me not only no credit, but immediately undermine the point that I was trying to make.

29:49 So here's the thing, though. Like the end of the film, he You know, I think it ends in a postmodern place where the commoner chooses selfishness in light of all the different truths he has seen. And the priest, well, the the lumberjack chooses to adopt this orphan who magically appeared on the doorstep, and the priest chooses to have his faith restored in humanity because of the latter's actions rather than the formers. And yet the former still did his thing, like he still has his truth. He thinks that everyone is selfish and he's not punished for it. Like he just walks off with the with the stolen goods. So I I think it it ends in a much more ambiguous place. I disagree.

30:37 I just, I I don't think that. I don't think that the filmmakers are endorsing that though. I don't think they're saying like this is a valid way to live. I think they're saying like sometimes people look at the world and they think that it is all and they become Hugh Jackman and clone themselves and and do you know what I mean? And sometimes they don't do that, and that's the good thing, and do that instead. I don't know. I feel like there's a very, very ringing endorsement of rescuing babies and not stealing things from them at the end of this film. I mean, sure, like the sun, the sun shines down when he takes the baby. So we know that it's a good thing. Like the rain stopped, but at the end of the day, like we don't know what happened to like, you know, we don't know the results of the case.

31:24 Like I I'm I'm sure that they hang our our bandits. Our bandit buffoon, if you will, but you don't see a result of it. And so I it it feels all a little bit wishy washy to me. Yeah, I I think I'm, I'm interested to continue this conversation because I think I could keep going and we could keep just, you know, batting this back and forth to each other. But I think we need to press pause here, Brad, Let's try this. Glenn Rhodes, 10, and then we'll come back and chat a little bit more about Rashomon. What do you say? Let's get to it.

32:05 All right, everybody. Today we are going to be drinking Glenn Rhodes Bourbon cask, a whiskey that I know absolutely nothing about. Bob, back to you. Brad, I knew I kept you around for some reason, man. It's for those incredible intros that you give. So I I also know very little about this because it's a sample that was sent to us by our friend Austin Dupree from the Bourbon Nearing channel on Instagram and you know, an occasional podcast as well. So thank you to Austin for this, Brad. This is a space side single malt Scotch whiskey that was aged exclusively in ex Bourbon casks. The only thing about it that I don't know is the age.

32:47 Statement because it is a non age stated Scotch so I have no idea how old the oldest. In this is, but you know it's not a super young Scotch, we can say that. Yeah, It seems to me that we like bourbon, Bob. We do. We do. Tend to like bourbon. We also tend to like space side Scotch whiskey, so this seems. Like a match made in heaven, Brad. Yeah, it it does. I I don't know. Is there anything else you want to say about the whiskey, or should I get into my nosing notes? Well, I will say this. I have not tried it yet. I'm sipping it live. All I know about it is that it is very light in color in the glass and that it is 80 proof. So folks, that's all I've got to give you. Brad has much more complex and complicated notes than I do, but I'm going to give it a sip and a nose while he talks. Yeah, let's me pull out to my complex and complicated notes there, Robert.

33:42 The nose here is decent. It reminds me of Sherry a lot. It's got kind of that fruitiness. It had some fresh bread notes to it, and it had a really nice lemony citrus Zing to it. Nothing about it really stood out. It was very palatable. I give it a six and a half. Yeah. I'm about there with you, Brad, although I think it's a little less palatable. So it's definitely very fruity. It's definitely like citrus is a good word for it. For me, it's like a really bright white wine, almost a champagne, like Prosecco or something. But I think that there's really no bourbon character to this at all. It's not really imparting anything from the bourbon casks and the alcohol.

34:27 The ethanol on the nose is almost a little bit harsh and astringent for me, and it really kind of undercuts what's a really bright, lovely nose otherwise. I'm going to give it a 6 1/2 as well because I'm a little nervous of where it's going to go on the palate. Well, I for me it took an upswing on the palate. It had like a really nice honey drizzle flavor to it. It almost tasted the bread went from being like a fresh bread into like a nice piece of toast with a little bit of butter on it. And then as it got into the more the the back part of my palate I got a lot of pear. And a little bit of like an almond flavor.

35:09 I I like this decently well. I came up from a six and a half. I'm going to give the pallet a 7 1/2. I guess I want to give it a 7 1/2, but if I'm being honest, like it's good. I forgot that I had just drank it as I was listening to you talk. You know what I mean? Like, it is a very. I don't want to call it a mindless whiskey because that sounds like an insult, but it's something that you can drink and not think about while you drink it. Definitely not offensive at all. The graininess is there, but it's not like super forward on the palate. It doesn't taste young. There's like a nice bit of saline to it and also a little bit more kind of carmelly sweetness on the palate than there was on the nose.

35:53 But again, it's like this was fine. And by the time we record our next episode, Brad, I will not remember anything about this whiskey. So for that I actually. I'm just going to give it a 7 out of 10 on the palate. Yeah, the finish for me was a 7 out of 10. It got kind of like peachy fruit on the end. Some of the cardamom type spices came through, but it it, it just soured a little bit where it kind of had a sour barley flavor on the, you know, after I was done drinking it, it was OK. It it wasn't anything to write home about, but it was solid. So seven out of 10. Yeah, I think I'm about in the same place as you, man. Like this is a very. Boring review because there's just nothing here that really excites me.

36:33 You know what I mean? I think that the the aftertaste here does get just a little bit bitter if I'm being honest, but it's not even bitter enough to be offended by. Like this is a very middle of the road. Scotch whiskey. It is fine. This is very fine. Everything is fine. I will give it a 7 out of 10 on the finish. Yeah. And that brings me the balance. Honestly, Bob, this is just kind of like average to a bud, the average flavors throughout that. That don't offer a ton of complexity or depth of experience, so I'll give it a six out of 10. On balance it's fine, but but just not enough to really wow me.

37:15 You know, usually, Brad, when we have a nose, taste and finish that are all within the same score as each other, that usually results in us bumping the balance up a little bit because it means that it was consistent throughout. I think the problem here is that it was consistently. Under it's underwhelming. The word lackluster, I guess. Like, it's just fine. It's a fine whiskey. I think it's decently balanced, just like the rest of it is decent, but I think that only is going to result in me giving it a 6 1/2 year on balance. Yeah, and here's where we get to value now. This isn't an outrageously priced Scotch. It is $50.00.

37:56 I I don't think you can buy in the state of Ohio, but from what I'm seeing online, it's anywhere from like 45 to 60 bucks. So what is it? We'll just call it 50. Is that a good value, Bob? I just don't think this is good enough to to say it's a good value at 50 bucks. Here's the complicating factor, Brad. It's actually discontinued now. So but but that's the thing, it's been discontinued and it's still only 50 bucks. So like there must not be very much demand for this out there because it seems to be widely available. Still I think $50.00 is a decent price point for a single malt Scotch whiskey. However it being non age stated, it being blended and it not being that good does kind of Ding it a little bit for me I actually think.

38:45 So I'm being frank, the the value might be the highest scoring category here. Even though I don't really like it that much, I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 on the value. Yeah, I I think for me, the the whiskey inside just doesn't impress enough to go that high. I I think I'll just sit right in the middle and give it a 5 out of 10. Man, Brad, this has been a very rough day for you between Rashomon and Glen Rove's Bourbon cask. Yeah, Rash Man is not impressing me a ton. Rash Man, The worst superhero of all time. Don't worry, I'm is he here to, like, fix your rash?

39:25 I don't think so. Man. All right, I'm coming out to a 34 out of 50. What are you coming out to, Brad? I'm just a little below you. I'm at a 32 out of 50. All right. So that's very easy for us to average. We're coming out to a 33. Out of 50 or a 66? Out of 100, This is well below the mark where we normally start recommending that you try or buy. I don't really think it's necessary to do either of those, Brad. Like it's not a bad whiskey, but I don't know that I would recommend someone pay money for it. Yeah, it just doesn't check off enough boxes to be worth 50 bucks. Like like it's not a bad whiskey. There's just way too many better options in the 45 to $60.00 Scotch range.

40:12 All right, man. Well, I have once again let you down with both the movie and the whiskey. Let's get back into talking about Rashomon. What do you say? At the very least, I can beat you in 2 facts and a falsehood. So that's what you think. Let's get back to it, Bob. All right, everybody. That was Glenn Roth's Bourbon cask, a whiskey that just didn't quite try hard enough for the price that it costs. Kind of sounds like your opinion on this movie, Brad. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much money he spent on it. Maybe. Maybe he spent just the right amount of money to get what he got. You are being quite the literalist today, I tell you.

40:54 Metaphor is lost on you in this world. That's that's Dagon, right, Bob? All right, man. I am interested to see what you dug up for our next segment, which we call 2 facts and a falsehood. Is going to try to stumpy ball 2 All right and what is wrong? 2 facts and a falsehood. That's right, two facts and a falsehood. The part of the podcast where I try to stump Bob by giving him 3 facts, one of which is actually a falsehood. And these facts are usually called from the IMDb trivia page.

41:40 Yeah, that's probably the best way of putting it. So facts is always in quotations, but only one of them was written by Brad to try to stump me. Brad I. Yeah. 22 facts in quotation Marks and one thing. That Brad wrote in falsehood? Yeah, yes. I don't know what my record is right now on the year, Brad. I did not tally it up before we press record. I promise before next week I will know exactly where I'm at. I'm hovering around 500 and that seems to be the case all season so far. Yeah, it's been a good season. Vegas would have a hard time putting odds on this, I believe. You know, it's funny. It's funny you say that before you get into two facts in a falsehood. I was thinking about this in the first half. You know how like on FanDuel or just in general, like you can do prop bets on a game, You know, like first person to hit a three pointer or whatever.

42:26 I realized that if I was going to do prop bets on our podcast, I would lose every single one I placed. Because like when you said that the cinematography in this movie was bad, I swear to God, I thought like as I was watching this movie, I was like, if there's nothing else we can talk about on this episode. I know Brad's going to love the camera work in this movie. That's the one thing I would bet my house on and. You know what I'm realizing? What's that? I think that the acting and the script just distracts from it. Shut up. Shut up. Are you realizing that right now, Brad? I.

43:09 Am Yeah, man, what an original thought. I couldn't even pay attention to the cinematography because of how ridiculous what was happening. All the things happening on the screen were. All right, man, let's get into two facts in a falsehood. Fact #1 During shooting, the cast approached Kurosawa on mass with the script and asked him what does it mean. The answer Kurosawa gave them was that Rashman is a reflection of life. And life does not always have clear meanings. Fact #2 during shooting of the film, Kurosawa would often have the actors practice the parts of the other characters, saying that the film would work best if each actor understood the perspective of each character.

43:55 Fact #3 In the downpour scenes showing the Rashimond Gate, Akira Kurosawa found that the rain in the background simply wouldn't show up against the light Gray backdrop. To solve this problem, the crew ended up tinting the rain by pouring black ink into the tank of the rain machine. The ink is clearly visible on Woodcutter's face just before the rain stops. I like that one. I'm going to say that's true. Just sounds cool. And if you made it up that I want to give you your props. One and two are so similar that it's kind of hard to figure out which one is the truth and which one's the falsehood, I'm going to say. I don't freaking know, man.

44:37 Whichever one I think is going to be wrong, I'm going to say one is the falsehood. Yeah, you're wrong. Yeah, yeah. Was it 2? It was 2. Nice. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Hey, look at me. You did it. Just winning on All Friends tonight. I like your strategy of like I'm going to write a fact that is almost identical to this other fact. What are you talking? About I just like they were so similar. Now the first fact they were all asking him what the script meant and the second one was about how Kurosawa acted as a director. All right. That's fair. Yeah. Take your point. We're just going to butt heads on everything tonight. I think we are, man. Honestly, You know The funny thing about this? I haven't revisited this movie in years and years, and it's been so long since I've watched this movie. Brad, The Criterion Collection came out with the like. The restored version of this movie I want to say in like 08 or 09.

45:37 And that was right when they had started doing DVD's and Blurays and I was like, I want to get a Bluray player one of these days, but they're really expensive. I have such an extensive DVD collection and and from what I hear these new Bluray players they up convert so like they play DVD's in. HD quality, that's what. That's how they were like selling them at the time. So I was like, I'm going to get the DVD and not get the Blu-ray. Smart. Yeah, right. So I have it on DVD. That's how. That's how long it's been since I've watched this movie. That's incredible. So did you stream it or did you watch your DVD?

46:17 I absolutely did not watch the DVD. I streamed it on Macs. The point I was going to make was this. This was not one that I had circled as like. Brad must love this movie cuz like I haven't even watched it in you know, 10/12/15 years, whatever it's been. And I really loved it this time man. Like I I thought it was incredibly powerful and as I was watching the ending like I'm tearing up and it was the combination of like this is just working for me, but also like you can see the tentacles coming off of this movie and influencing. So many other movies we've talked about in this podcast and I think that like regardless of the fact that I could tell you didn't like this movie very much, I am interested to hear Brad, like what movies came to mind for you, if any of like, Oh yeah, that was clearly influenced by Rashomon.

47:14 We have done over 200 Movies Now, probably over like 350 episodes if you include bonus episodes. And our very first Japanese film, you use the word tentacles. You have never once said that word before on our podcast. Oh, that killed me, man. You're you're just you're firing on all cylinders. I guess so. I guess so. What movies did I see? Here's the thing, man. I don't know if I really saw any other movies in this as I watched it. I like, I know that that's not a fun, engaging answer for our listeners to to hear, but I think I was just so enthralled in the performances.

48:15 Oh man. Bob, why don't you tell me what movies you saw in this and I can. I feel like you're being dismissive now, Like I. I mean, Brad, there's there's so many. Like we we literally just sat down with Jay Arisman at New Riff and he talked about this for like 20 minutes. This is the first movie that really did this idea of like, you know, different perspectives on a thing or I don't know, like I was even thinking about movies that we've watched recently. I've already said Memento, I've said The Prestige. I I think there's a lot of Unforgiven in this movie and this idea of like. The stories that we tell ourselves, the myths that we build up. And then the reality. You know, when you were talking about the samurai like cowering and shaking as he's fighting the the bandit, like that reminds me of the way that little Bill gets killed at the end of Unforgiven. Like it's not pretty and we need to stop like valorizing those things.

49:13 So I don't know, man. I just think, I think there are a lot of films that. I'm not going to say they don't get made without Rashiman, but like this was the first one to do it and you can draw a very clear line from A to B. Yeah, I sure. Even that though is like something that I I wouldn't necessarily know, like, like sure, this is a story within a story, but you go back to Double Indemnity like that is a a story within a story. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't mean like just the story within a story, but like the idea of. So like the story about the samurai and the wife, and this is the first movie ever that did the three separate takes on the same event, and they're all from different perspectives kind of a thing. Yeah, yeah.

50:01 I mean, I I think that there's I, I guess I'll say this, the one filmmaker I did think about was Nolan was Nolan. Yeah. I mean, that's partially because we just watched, you know, three of his movies. But sure, like this feels like, you know, he doesn't bend time in any way. But he bends perspective on a on a chronological event. Yeah. So I'm like, yeah, sure, there's part of me that's like, oh, I can see how Nolan probably picked up a few things from here as he uses, you know, time and different storytelling to to mess with our perspectives as as an audience. Yeah, well, Brad, I can tell that you don't really want to talk about this movie. This let's wind down, man.

50:47 I think we should just check out for the day. Like I said, I don't have like a unique personal attachment to this movie. It's not like when you come at ET or something. But I think there also comes a point where it's like, all right, I think Brad's done now. So let's let's get to our last couple. Segments of the day here. The first one is one that we call. Let's make it a double. We're near the end of the episode, so thanks listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's favor another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's make it a double is the part of the show where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, as you have clearly been thinking about all of the movies this reminds you of.

51:31 I'm gonna let you go first, man. What's your Make it a double. Oh man, I think that there is another movie that deals with alternate perspectives and a lot of different people trying to figure out how to do the right thing in a crazy effed up world. I'm going to pair this with Pulp Fiction. Oh, nice. I like it. Yeah, Yep. Because then I would actually enjoy myself watching one of the two. You. Just had to get one more in, didn't you? Brad, actually go ahead I think. Thematically, though, Pulp Fiction feels like a a really good modern fit on Rajaman. There's a movie that I would really love for you to watch at some point.

52:14 It's not Japanese, it's Chinese movie. It's called Hero Stars Jet Li, it is. I mean, it's just a fantastic movie, but it follows the same kind of structure where Jet Li's character goes before, like the the governor of a province or something, and he's telling him this story. And he tells it from three different perspectives. And it is very obviously Rashomon. I think you'd like that one better. There's a couple more, there's more action elements in it. I think that's kind of the obvious pick here. I was also thinking about a movie like Life of Pi, where at the end of the movie, like you are very much left with this choice of here are the two options for how this went down. Which one do you think is the better story? And I think that's kind of like what the movie leaves you with at the end here.

53:02 But the movie, I'm really going to go with, Brad, you actually already said the name of it. I was thinking about it pretty much through the whole end of the movie. When you have a tragic tale like the tale of the the bandit and the wife and the samurai, and you have to kind of pick up the pieces after and decide what are you going to do in a situation where no one has done the right thing and it's do the right thing. I mean the. The monologue that Samuel L Jackson as the DJ gives at the end of that movie where he says, you know, are we going to live together together? Are we going to live? I think it just fits really well here. So that's going to be my pick. Do the right thing.

53:44 Yeah, that's a great pick, dude. I think that you have a lot going on and do the right thing in Rashomon Where. You just don't know what's going on and and that's like, OK, you got to you got to figure it out for yourself as an audience member and and they're both 10 out of 10 movies, right, Bob? Oh yeah. All right, Brad, let's give this movie some final scores. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I didn't expect to give this A10. I think it's a 10 out of 10. Dude, I loved it. I thought that the camera movements every single shot was beautifully done. I mean, I'm just excited to see where we go from here with Kurosawa and so I'm going to set the bar pretty high here at a 10 out of 10. That is 1 might say as high as the bar could go. So that is a very high bar indeed. I will set it a little bit lower. I'm going to give it some realistic expectations. I'm going to give Rashomon a six and a half. It did not work for me.

54:44 Dang. Bro and I have no shame at this point in my movie watching career. I got no shame man. I know what I think. You certainly don't have any shame. I know that for a fact. I would not fit well in a honor and shame society like feudal Japan. We're coming out to an average of an 8.25 out of 10 on this one, which puts us pretty much right in line with where this is at an IMDb. I think this sits at like #130, something in the top 250 at like an 8.2. So for every person like me out there, there is a brat. And that's just the way of the world, folks. Yeah, but honestly, I want to know how much you guys agree with me. And so if you want to do that, you can go ahead and find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. At Film Whiskey, or if you want to join the conversation, you can jump onto our Discord.

55:37 Discord is an awesome place where we get to have conversations with a small group of people, and the entire Internet doesn't have to see it. And that's kind of awesome. So come join our Discord, talk about Rashomon, talk about all sorts of things. You can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes. Well, Brad, if the if the one hour and 30 minute version of Kurosawa didn't work for you, I'm pretty pumped to see what the three hour and 30 minute version of Kurosawa does for you. Cuz next week we're looking at 7 Samurai, you finally get to pull out of your criterion Blu-ray. All right. So join us for that next week. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.