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Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection Actors: Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki Director: Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Black & White Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 105 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-05-27 Buy from Amazon |
 "Kuroshakespeare"A good example, along with Kurosawa's "Ran", of the continuing universality of Shakespeare. You can stick him in feudal Japan, you can take the dialogue out, you can do whatever you like, but in the end, you're still left with Shakespeare. Kurosawa knew this only too well--that there was more than enough room for his own sensibility, that he could not distort Shakespeare, but that Shakespeare could expand his cinematic art. "Throne of Blood" may be one of the most colorful black-and-white movies ever made, if that makes any sense. Kurosawa was a genius with the camera. There is always something wonderful to look at in every scene of every one of his movies. His attention to light, shadow, and most importantly, movement, puts him at the highest level of directors. His storytelling skill is just as strong as his technical skill. He is one of the very few directors--Hitchcock, Kubrick, Bunuel and maybe one or two others--who embodies all of the great characteristics of filmmaking. Directors who can be imitated but not duplicated, and certainly not surpassed. The new Criterion edition of this movie is definitive--as beautiful a print as I can imagine.  "Kurosawa...well"Strangely, most of the movies by Kurosawa just didn't click with me. Only exception is Yojimbo. I was disappointed with Seven Samurai too. I like his style of exploring chracters and conflict but Throne of blood was just OK. As a movie lover, I prefer B/W. Often I think B/W is more expressive but in case of Kurosawa, it just make movie dated. Not well balanced. Also, I feel his directing is kind of clumsy, pace-wise. Please do not throw a stone to me. Also, I didn't like Mifune's acting too. From the beginning to the end, only one expression on his face. Widely opened eyes. last scene was the only scene I enjoyed. How could they do that? Check Yojimbo. Mifune is cool, too! And is there any real battle scene really? I haven't seen one...  "Kurosawa's "Macbeth" Does Shakespeare Justice""Throne of Blood", aka "Castle of the Spider's Web", is the third Kurosawa film that I've seen, and it's definitely different from the other two ("The Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress"). It's much more somber and introspective, less action-oriented, and the general theme centers on ambition and fate rather than cooperative action to overcome a common problem. The film is an adaptation of "Macbeth"; only instead of taking place in medieval Scotland, it's set in feudal Japan. I tend to be a Shakespeare purist, but I really enjoyed the different historical setting. Warlords, samurai and huge, squat fortresses are depicted in full glory. The samurai costumes are so beautiful and intricately detailed that I had to pause the film just to stare at them. In addition, the dialogue and acting have been altered to fit a Japanese setting. Many of the scenes are shot in the Noh style, which is a very old, very classical form of Japanese theater. In Noh, the drama plays out on bare stages. In order to compensate for such sparse environments, the acting tends to be highly stylized. To Western audiences, this may translate as unrealistic, but to Eastern, I presume it comes off as compelling. Toshiro Mifune plays the title character, Washizu, who receives predictions of power and glory from a forest spirit. Spurred on by his ambitious, scheming wife, Washizu commits heinous acts in order to fulfill the prophecy. The effect is like a tightening noose as Washizu becomes ensnared in his own web of ambition. The final scene is a cinema classic. Never one to go for cheap effects, Kurosawa uses professional archers and real arrows, and Mifune's reaction is genuine. The scene visualizes the claustrophobic mood of the film and the idea of inescapable fate. Kurosawa was a master of this type of filmmaking. I'm always impressed by how much Kurosawa accomplishes with so little. Take the forest spirit, for example. He simply shot her in blinding white light and removed all high notes from her voice. It's effectively creepy, yet it's something filmmakers today, with their multimillion-dollar CGI effects, would not even attempt. It's for these moments of filmmaking ingenuity, which "Throne of Blood" abounds in, that Kurosawa has become so well respected. "Invoking the essence of Macbeth"Of all Shakespeare's great tragedies, Macbeth is the play that people find the most troubling. It is the one work in Shakespeare's canon that comes closest to Greek tragedy with its outward inevitability and its conclusions seemingly predestined by the fates. We are also asked to identify with a murderer--an intelligent intriguing complex murderer to be sure--but still a murderer. This creates within us a moral tension not present in more clear-cut tragic figures like Hamlet and Lear, and this only leads to a greater incentive to excuse Macbeth as a victim of fate. It is easier to identify with a murderer who has no choice in his actions since his lack of choice absolves us of the guilt we might otherwise feel for sympathizing with him. Kurosawa leaves us no such outlet. His Macbeth is an unrepentant schemer, opportunist and murderer. That he feels passing pangs of conscience is due to the remnants of his humanity, remnants that by the end have been totally subsumed by his overarching ambition. This is a subtly different presentation from the angst ridden second guessing Macbeths so often portrayed in western productions, and when Kurosawa's Macbeth meets his death, we are struck not so much by the waste of a potentially good man as we are by how completely he is destroyed through the workings of divine justice. I am not going out of my way to be bookish here. This analysis is meant to show how well Kurosawa understands the moral message conveyed by the play as he constructs a Macbeth who, in spite of the ghastliness of his character, both fascinates us and draws our admiration. It is easy to admire obvious heroes and just as easy to condemn obvious villains and Hollywood has made a fortune from grinding away at this formulaic mill over the years. However, we are cast into contrary waters when we find ourselves admiring sympathetic villains and condemning failed heroes. Such characters are too much like our secret selves and their presence forces us into uncomfortable self-examination. This is Kurosawa's purpose: he is forcing each of us to ask how much like Macbeth we really are. How much blood would we spill for our own chance at a throne? And Kurosawa does this under an all but impossible handicap. He cannot use Shakespeare's glorious language, so in its stead, he substitutes his genius in the filmmaker's craft: mood, lighting, shading, contrast; and most of all, imagery, both the shrewd and the shocking, like the famous closing scene in which justice is delivered with altogether gruesome finality. Nor does it hurt that he has access to one of the finest actors in cinema. Toshiro Mifune puts in an inspired performance as an unswervingly driven Macbeth. This film and 'Ran', Kurosawa's later Shakespearean adaptation, are both bittersweet experiences. Kurosawa never had the chance to direct a production in the Bard's native tongue. He lived and filmed in a time when it was unthinkable for a major western production to be given into the hands of a Japanese director, so although we have had many notable interpretations of Shakespeare from many notable directors over the years, the now lost prospect of a definitive version from one of the best directors in history can only evoke regret. This film is unusual in that it may appeal even to people who do not like Shakespeare. In sacrificing the language for his Japanese audience, Kurosawa is forced to compensate with his theatrical ingenuity, and this has the ironic effect of making his version more accessible to those who have always been put off Shakespeare because of the demands of the language. Against this, the acting is comprised of bold gestures and pregnant pauses, a style that may strike some as stilted and affected, but which actually comes from traditional Japanese Noh theatre and which grows on you and becomes more natural as the film progresses. This is not a film for mass audiences, but if you like intelligent atypical challenging fare and are not afraid of subtitles, then this surprisingly original adaptation will make you think as well as enthral and entertain you. "It's no Seven Samurai, but it will do."Anyone who is a fan of Shakespeare or Kurosawa's samurai tales should check this one out. It's an adaption of Hamlet, set in 16th century Japan. It has all the same elements that Hamlet had, just in a samurai setting. Toshiro Mifune is great as the Hamlet character, Taketoki Washizu, who starts as a loyal servant of King Kuniharu Tsuzuki, played by Takamuru Sazaki. Many of the same actors who were in The Seven Samurai were also in this movie, such as Mifune, Takashi Shimura, and Minoru Chiaki. Yet the movie isn't as great as Seven Samurai. It's still quite good, with Mifune in an excellent role. The movie has a very eerie feel, especially when Washizu sees the witch 2 times. Also, the music is quite evil sounding too, what with that squeaking whistle. Anyway, it's another great movie by Kurosawa. Worth watching. |
