Rashomon is a 1950 film by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, based on a novel by Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Citizen Kane, on the other hand, is a film by Orson Welles made in 1940. Although they are 10 years apart and on two continents. But the two films have many similarities in their narrative structure. And they have inspired endless films since.

Both films use non-linear narrative in their narrative approach. Citizen Kane tells the story of the life of newspaper king Kane, opening with his death and using the unsolved mystery of the rosebud as a thread throughout the film. In the search for the truth, the journalists interview five people close to Kane, in turn, recounting his near-legendary life from his childhood through to his death. Through his life experiences and the rise and fall of his career, the audience is presented with the complex facts and truths behind a capitalist myth.

Rashomon tells the story of the murder of a samurai in the Heian-kyo era. The woodcutter, the robber, the wife of the deceased and the witch are all called as witnesses for questioning, but surprisingly, they give very different and contradictory testimonies, and the case is full of doubts.

Both films use a multi-perspective narrative approach to an event. Again, the whole story of the film is made more confusing by the unconventional chronology. The advantage of a non-linear narrative is that it adds a sense of suspense to the story. It makes a simple story even simpler. It allows for more reflection and immersion. It is this kind of narrative that appears several times in Quentin’s subsequent darkly humorous films. It has become a common approach to suspense films of later generations.