Rashomon, featuring a feral bandit and stiff convention-bound couple, was criticized for portraying a backward Japan to the world.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

In 1964, Rashomon was reshot scene-for-scene as The Outrage, which starred Paul Newman.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

At the time, Rashomon, the tale of a violent act refracted through the conflicting testimony of four witnesses, was a significant act of diplomacy.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Contrary to the West's perception of Kurosawa as a prophet unappreciated in his own land, every one of a dozen films, from Rashomon to Red Beard 15 years later, was a smash hit.

CNN: Kurosawa Akira

Beginning Friday, with both "Wicked" and "Oz the Great and Powerful" in different kinds of theaters, audiences will be able to choose between two unreconcilable prequels that taken together form a kind of Oz Rashomon.

WSJ: The Road Well-Traveled: Oz the Great and Powerful

But the series quickly found its pacing, the elaborate 'Rashomon' structure revealed its glorious ambition and the combination of absurdity and intelligence meshed as well or better than you might have remembered from the original three seasons.

CNN: 'Arrested Development': What the critics are saying