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Let's see how it works. The woodcutter confesses that he has not seen the dagger that penetrated the husband's chest; and therefore, he is innocent of its theft. However, towards the end, the commoner claims that there is an ample ground for us to believe that he stole it. The wife, Masago, insists that she was raped, but the stories given by her husband and Tajōmaru affirm that she enjoyed the sexual encounter. Moreover, the woodcutter's second story tells that the wife is an instigator of murder. Along with Masago's, his story also describes the husband as lacking in physical strength and devoid of compassion. On the contrary, the husband's version asserts that he was true to the samurai code. In his confession, Tajōmaru stresses his bravery and excellent swordsmanship. He says that he and the samurai crossed swords over twenty times. However, in the second version of the woodcutter's story, the duel turned out to be a match between two cowards.
The forest is dark and the police station is sunlit. Quite obviously, they suggest a bifurcation of man's nature: reason versus impulse. Exposed to the sunlight at the police station, the woodcutter, the samurai, Masago and Tajōmaru all tell their stories, faithful to their own illusion of what they should be. The sunlight over their heads symbolizes their return to reason. They don their social masks and confess in a manner that will protect their self-images and will sanctify their sense of moral justice.
Then, why does Kurosawa place three individuals at the gate? Kurosawa seems to be posing this important question: "What is man's nature?" "Is man's nature essentially good or bad or a combination of both?" Each time the scene is cut back to gate where the film started, the debate over man's nature between the priest and the commoner becomes more intense. The woodcutter remains silent until the final sequence. The film offers three answers in response. An idealistic view is presented by the priest. Throughout the film the priests tries assert his view that man is capable of good; that even when he lies he lies through recourse to reason, even if a purely selfish reason like self-defense. A pessimistic view is represented by the commoner, who says: "The world we live in is a hell. Everyone is selfish." A more positive response emerges in the final part of the film. The final answer, given through the woodcutter, is a synthesis. It claims that man is good to the extent that he tries to be good.
Kurosawa seems to say we must probe the question of man's nature by playing the various accounts of the murder against one another. The existence of the incongruous stories implies that if man is put through the ordeal of life, the way he acts will reveal his inner nature.
The second version of the woodcutter's story and the final sequence are both added by the director. In fact, the film turns around with the introduction of the baby. Here, the commoner and the woodcutter now act out their respective views on man's nature. When the commoner sees the baby, he kneels over it and strips it of the clothes.
The baby is a symbol of fertility and future--a hope for a better society. Until this point, the woodcutter has been verbally inexpressive of his own view of man's nature. Now he shows his opinion through action; he tries to support the priest's view and defend goodness.
The commoner disappears into the rain. Three shots follow, showing the priest and the woodcutter standing under the gate. Each is terminated by a dissolve. Referring to the dissolve, the film critic Donald Richie states that this technique usually suggests time passing and is at the same time a formal gesture--a gesture which makes us look, makes us feel. It emphasizes the lapse of psychological time, during which the woodcutter's mind goes through a radical transformation--a transformation which might have escaped the audience's attention had a simple cut been used. The guilt and remorse over what he did in the forest-the theft of the dagger--awaken compassion for the foundling. The transition from rain into sunlight through the dissolves clearly corresponds to the woodcutter's shift in values.
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