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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 |
 "WHAT!? Kurosawa Macbeth!? Have we eaten on the insane root?"I am a brilliant, but hallucinating student from Nagoya International School who tends to become enamored with pretty blonde young women in the Polanski Macbeth. But because I was drifting off to sleep while the Polanski version was shown, I will offer my sage observation on Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. The film intrigued me with its unusual style. The monochromatic scenes clearly illustrate the malicious atmosphere. Despite the black and white, the blood was just as obvious. The story has been successfully transplanted from Scotland to medieval Japan and tells the downfall of an ambitious warlord. The scenes are mainly shot from a low position which stresses the fact of Japanese Hierarchy. Asaji (Lady Macbeth) seems to be emotionless, this is accentuated by her thick white makeup reminiscent of Noh theater. However, Kurosawa destroy the idea of the Samurai's Bushidou, the way of the warrior. Washizu, (Macbeth) is a proud Samurai but gets destroyed by Asaji's murderous intentions. All his warriors eventually rebel as he gets assassinated by his men. The witches are converted to Mononoke, who is an evil spirit in Japanese. It is also significant that Kumonosujyo means Coweb castle and the Mononoke was spinning thread because Washizu gets caught in a web which eventually leads to his death just as a fly entrapped by a spider. From my perspective, the Throne of Blood is deep. Kurosawa was able to capture the main points of Macbeth as well as absorbing the highlights of the setting. However, if you are a Shakespearean buff, the film lacks the rich language, but this is compensated for by the eerie atmosphere created by Kurosawa.  "The uniqueness of KUROSAWA!!!!!"I am junior at Nagoya International School and have just finished studying Shakespeare$B!G(Bs Macbeth. In addition to reading it, we were fortunate to see 4 film versions of it. Of all the films, Kurosawa$B!G(Bs $B!H(BThrone of Blood$B!I(B appealed to me the most because of its uniqueness. Although the film was in black and white, it created an eerie atmosphere and a vivid picture of the mood, the character and their actions. Like Shakespeare, Kurosawa uses old Japanese language, and even for us native Japanese speakers much of it was incomprehensible, especially the chant at the beginning and the end. However, the language suited the traditional feudal Japanese setting of the samurai and helped create the mood. Lady Macbeth (Asaji), her face a stark white, in $B!H(BThrone of Blood$B!I(B was very emotionless and she rarely talked; and when she did, it was slow and unclear. She was a mysterious character who said strange things which also contributed to the mood. The violence was very graphic and even though film was monochromatic, the blood stood out very clearly. The violent scenes were very realistic especially at the end when Washizu (Macbeth) is running around trying to avoid getting shot by what seems to be a million arrows. I recommend this film to any student studying Macbeth as it provides a very relevant yet unique comparison to the other versions.  "Reviewing "Throne of Blood""My name is Amy and I am a student at Nagoya International School in Japan. I watched Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" in my English class a few weeks ago, and prior to watching that I saw many different versions of Macbeth including Polanski's version. I believe that in this adaptation of Macbeth, the actor who played Washizu, did an excellent job of portraying an extremely doubtful man prior to killing the king (or lord in this case). Kurosawa did a great job in showing how Asaji was the main drive behind the murder of the king, that without her, it's doubtful that Washizu would have ever followed through with the murder. Also in that scene, Asaji discusses "ambition", the exact word which is used in the original play, "Macbeth". I believe that ambition is an extremely important theme in Macbeth and it was wise for Kurosawa to use it. Although "Throne of Blood" was a very different style than the original "Macbeth" play, I think that Kurosawa changed it enough to make it very interesting compared to the other versions, yet he kept many important themes, which were necessary to keep the original story alive. "Throne of Clud"In some ways, this is pure Kurosawa. It thunders with images of primordial power, it's cinema as tornado. However, dramatically Kurosawa moves away from the individual-centered humanism of his earlier works and serves up a formalist vision of man seduced and doomed by powerlust. If earlier Kurosawa films explored and stressed the power of the individual to change his fate and society, Throne of Blood, based on Shake's tragedy Macbeth, is about man doomed to relive endless cycles of greed and self-destruction, a theme Kurosawa would repeat on an even grander style in the somewhat bloated Ran. Yet, Throne is Blood is no simple also-ran, but a movie of great eloquence and ferocity, Shake's theme rendered(perhaps reduced)to a primal dance. Mifune, a wild actor, is somewhat limited for this kind of stylized role but the ferocity restrained within rigidity somehow intensifies the suppressed animal passion at the core of the movie. "Samurai Macbeth"I am a student of NIS(nagoya international school), and I saw the 'throne of blood' during my English liturature class. I afraid that I 'm not either japanese nor american, so I thought I would not understand clearly, but since I read Macbeth, and saw some of movies Shakespeare's verson which means I know basic story of Macbeth, and fortunely there was a caption in English, so it was easy to understand. Also I afraid the languages of Shakespeare's, becuase I didn't sure that Japanese can use the magnitude languages which is used by shakespeare. As I respect, the language was not rich as much as shakespear's, but director shows some scenes of interest scenes to cover the language that couldn't translate everything of shakespeare's language. Also it was pretty interest to see the Macbeth of samurai verson. I would strongly recommend this movie for student who wants to know Macbeth's interest. |
