Rating: 
Summary: The most important thing
Review: Though weighing in at a sparse 110 pages, this collection of short stories has exactly what is needed to catch your attention: Story. Each short story exists only long enough to allow Akutagawa enough time to develop the scene and characters and to tell their story.The book is a quick read, and that may be its only failing. But the book never overstays its welcome and Akutagawa's writing style(s) is fun to read. For little more than the price of a supermarket paperback, you can have this gem on your bookshelf. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: make sure you know what you're buying
Review: To clarify some possible misunderstandings about this book: 1. This is not an "old" book, like The Book of Five Rings or Hagakure. It was written in the 1900's. 2 It's a book of short stories, not a novel or even a novella (together the stories total only 109 pages.) 3 Yes, Kurosawa's film was based on one of the stories, "In a Grove," which examines the circumstances of a rape from differing points of view. This story is about 13 pages. While the story is not bad, I would imagine that one would have to be a pretty hard-core fan of that film to buy this book just for that. 4. There is, however, a story called "Rashomon" in this collection, but this heavy-handed tale has little connection to the Kurosawa film, though Kurosawa may have lifted the tone and setting of his film's opening from the opening of this story. For you to decide. 5. What is or was the "Rashomon"? This is something I didn't know... To quote from the book (31n): "The 'Rashomon' was the largest gate in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. It was 106 feet wide and 26 feet deep, and was topped with a ridge-pole; its stone-wall rose 75 feet high. This gate was constructed in 789 when the then capital of Japan was transferred to Kyoto. With the decline of West Kyoto, the gate fell into bad repair, cracking and crumbling in many places, and became a hide-out for thieves and robbers and a place for abandoning unclaimed corpses."
Rating:
Summary: make sure you know what you're buying
Review: To clarify some possible misunderstandings about this book: 1. This is not an "old" book, like The Book of Five Rings or Hagakure. It was written in the 1900's. 2 It's a book of short stories, not a novel or even a novella (together the stories total only 109 pages.) 3 Yes, Kurosawa's film was based on one of the stories, "In a Grove," which examines the circumstances of a rape from differing points of view. This story is about 13 pages. While the story is not bad, I would imagine that one would have to be a pretty hard-core fan of that film to buy this book just for that. 4. There is, however, a story called "Rashomon" in this collection, but this heavy-handed tale has little connection to the Kurosawa film, though Kurosawa may have lifted the tone and setting of his film's opening from the opening of this story. For you to decide. 5. What is or was the "Rashomon"? This is something I didn't know... To quote from the book (31n): "The 'Rashomon' was the largest gate in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. It was 106 feet wide and 26 feet deep, and was topped with a ridge-pole; its stone-wall rose 75 feet high. This gate was constructed in 789 when the then capital of Japan was transferred to Kyoto. With the decline of West Kyoto, the gate fell into bad repair, cracking and crumbling in many places, and became a hide-out for thieves and robbers and a place for abandoning unclaimed corpses."
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