In feudal Japan, Washizu and Miki are warriors and friends. When riding to their Lord's castle to be decorated, a strange woman in the forest predicts future glories for them. When her predictions come true, it is the beginning of an ignominious tragedy that will ultimately end in death for both men ...
Made during his dynamic fifties period, this powerful retelling of William Shakespeare's Macbeth is the best movie version of the classic play (although the Orson Welles and Roman Polanski films are both good too). It sticks pretty close to the original text; the Washizus are the Macbeths, the Mikis are Banquo and Fleance, Tsuzuki is Duncan and Odagura is Siward. Some characters are missing - notably Macduff - and there are some new elements - such as Lady Washizu's pregnancy - but Kurosawa has captured the feel and the atmosphere of the story perfectly, whilst still making his movie visually powerful and arresting. He does this by making it almost a horror movie (the Japanese title translates as Cobweb Castle, a horror film title if ever I heard one); it's packed full of creepy scenes, startling sounds and moments (for example, when Yamada gasps at the murderer's sudden appearance), and is embedded with dread. It's also drenched in grim weather - the ever-present fog is a stunning metaphor for the moral dilemmas which constantly confront Washizu, almost as if the cloudiness of his thoughts have seeped out to surround him. Immediately after meeting the ghost, Kurosawa uses an amazing ten wordless shots - count them, ten - of Mifune and Chiaki riding around lost in the fog. Anyone else would have used one or two, but the ten are astonishing; this director loved bad weather. His use of camera is also brilliant in its simple, powerful elegance with so many clever shots to mention; the ghost's sudden dramatic disappearance, Lady Washizu swallowed by blackness as she fetches the poisoned saki, the famous Banquo's Ghost dinner scene, not to mention the incredible finale as the treasonable Mifune is tortured by a rain of arrows from his own men. This movie isn't as much fun as some of Kurosawa's others - it is Macbeth, after all - but it is stunning throughout, and one of the best screen adaptations of Shakespeare. English title - Throne Of Blood.
Made during his dynamic fifties period, this powerful retelling of William Shakespeare's Macbeth is the best movie version of the classic play (although the Orson Welles and Roman Polanski films are both good too). It sticks pretty close to the original text; the Washizus are the Macbeths, the Mikis are Banquo and Fleance, Tsuzuki is Duncan and Odagura is Siward. Some characters are missing - notably Macduff - and there are some new elements - such as Lady Washizu's pregnancy - but Kurosawa has captured the feel and the atmosphere of the story perfectly, whilst still making his movie visually powerful and arresting. He does this by making it almost a horror movie (the Japanese title translates as Cobweb Castle, a horror film title if ever I heard one); it's packed full of creepy scenes, startling sounds and moments (for example, when Yamada gasps at the murderer's sudden appearance), and is embedded with dread. It's also drenched in grim weather - the ever-present fog is a stunning metaphor for the moral dilemmas which constantly confront Washizu, almost as if the cloudiness of his thoughts have seeped out to surround him. Immediately after meeting the ghost, Kurosawa uses an amazing ten wordless shots - count them, ten - of Mifune and Chiaki riding around lost in the fog. Anyone else would have used one or two, but the ten are astonishing; this director loved bad weather. His use of camera is also brilliant in its simple, powerful elegance with so many clever shots to mention; the ghost's sudden dramatic disappearance, Lady Washizu swallowed by blackness as she fetches the poisoned saki, the famous Banquo's Ghost dinner scene, not to mention the incredible finale as the treasonable Mifune is tortured by a rain of arrows from his own men. This movie isn't as much fun as some of Kurosawa's others - it is Macbeth, after all - but it is stunning throughout, and one of the best screen adaptations of Shakespeare. English title - Throne Of Blood.