Kumonosu-jô

Throne of Blood is an epic historical drama by renowned director Kurosawa Akira and with charismatic lead actor Mifune Toshiro. The plot revolves around betrayal, conspiracy, greed, honour and megalomania. It is inspired by William Shakespeare's Macbeth intertwined with stylistic elements from Japanese Noh which is a visually appealing but physically static type of traditional musical drama.

The movie tells the story of friends and generals Washizu and Miki who are foretold a bright future by a mysterious spirit in a misty forest. Initially skeptical, the prophecies of the spirit happen to be true when Washizu is named Lord of the Northern Garrison and Miki Commander of the First Fortress. However, Washizu's cold-blooded wife Asaji manipulates her husband into forcing his luck instead of waiting for it to fall into his hands. They plot to assassinate Lord Tsuzuki and then kill Miki but their gloomy plans soon backfire and spiral out of control.

The movie convinces with gorgeous settings such as gigantic Spider's Web Castle. The acting performances are really intense and especially Yamada Isuzu convinces as sinister femme fatale. The plot is filled with interesting conspiracies, intrigues and twists. The film's pace is relatively steady after a slow but necessary introduction. The final quarter of the movie is particularly intense and ends in a brutal tragedy. The movie has aged rather well thanks to its timeless plot.

This movie isn't among Kurosawa Akira's greatest films like Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress but is still in the upper middle section of his impressive works. This dynamic historical drama is a clever take on William Shakespeare's timeless Macbeth and convinces thanks to stunning settings, gloomy atmosphere and intense acting performances. If you like elegant action films, intense dramas or epic war movies, you will certainly appreciate Throne of Blood. This entertaining movie has aged quite well and would serve as an appropriate introduction to the works of both Kurosawa Akira and Mifune Toshiro.

Prestigious recounting marked by evocative production design , unflinching violence, intense drama and fatalistic atmosphere . It is an incredibly detailed vision in its own right . Akira Kurosawa masterful retelling of Macbeth transports the tale to Medieval Japan and the world of Samurai . As it is so steeped in Japanese style that it bears little resemblance to the Shakespearean Macbeth original . It deals with two war-hardened generals Washizu , Toshiro Mifune , and Miki , Chiaki, who after securing an important victory on the battlefield return home, they are to rewarded by their overlord after having put down a rebellion , as they are promoted because of their breathtaking victory. Then they come across a spirit-alike seer and tell them of their future . But they find themselves lost on woods on their way to their castle . Then they meet at a maze-like the mysterious old woman, a spirit-like who prophesizes that Mifune will soon rule , but his realm will be short . The witch is missed as crazy but her prophesies come to pass . The tough general egged by his scheming as well as ambitious wife lady Adaji , Yamada , works to fullfill a prophecy that he would become lord of spider's cobweb castle but with unexpected consequences . As Washizu takes action winding up to its inevitable result .

Big budgeted production , with lavish setting , lots of mood , impressive battles , sad atmosphere, though it holds limited likeness to the Shakespearean play , due to Samurai and Japan style . Classic tragedy is performed with a celebrated lead acting by Toshiro Mifune, he is the tragic lord as a demonic leader of a feudal society who is prophecised to have a short reign . Mifune gives an extraordinary acting as the angry lord who receives a prophecy by a witch , as he one day will become the main ruler, while Miki'son will someday govern as Great Lord as well . It contains stunning fight scenes , fine performances, overwhelming sets , intense drama in which all of the fire , ambition, and doom of the Shakespearean text come brilliantly to life.

The motion picture titled Cobweb castle or The castle of the Spider's web was stunningly directed by Akita Kurosawa . He was a master filmmaker who made a lot of masterpieces . He realized several films about Samurai world such as Ran , Kagemusha , Yojimbo , 7 Samurai , The hidden fortress , Rashomon . And influenced in American and European cinema . As Rashomon inspired The outrage by Martin Ritt , Basic by John MacTiernan and Yojimbo inspired Sergio Leone's For a fisful of dollars . And he directed other versions based on Dostowieski's The Idiot, and Ran based on Shakespeare's King Lear. Other notorious films by Kurosawa were Doden Kaden , High and low, Sanjuro, The bad sleep well, Red beard, Scandal , A quiet duel , On wonderful Sunday, The lower depths, I live in fear, Ikuru . With the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, he made the samurai tale Kagemusha (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear" . His last films were a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) , it is an epic tale and nature ode as well as adventure in turn-of-the-century Siberia , the colorful : Dreams in which plays Martin Scorsese , and finally , Rapsody in August 1991 about Hiroshima atomic bombings .

Other films based on Macbeth are the followings : Macbeth 1948 starred and directed by Orson Welles with Daniel O'Herlihy , Roddy McDowall, Jeanette Nolan , Macbeth 1971 by Roman Polanski with John Finch, Francesca Annis , Martin Shaw, Macbeth 1976 with Eric Porter, Janet Suzman , Macbeth 1990 with Michael Jayston, Leigh Hunt , Macbeth 2015 by Justin Kurzel with Michael Fassbinder, Marion Cotillard, Paddy Considine , Sean Harris.

The Scottish Play gets a very Oriental makeover in this combination of samurai film and Noh theater from master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. As a fan of both AK and Shakespeare I owed it to myself to give this a go, particularly as this play has drawn many gifted filmmakers over the years, always to interesting results.

If you know Kurosawa's Seven Samurai or Yojombo, your expectations going into Throne of Blood will probably let you down at first. The energy and visual flair are there, but expressed very differently: a suffocating formality and simmering rage replaces the vitality and dynamism of those other films. Lost in a thick, perpetual fog, Kurosawa's characters stumble around like broken puppets, heavily made up in Noh theater makeup that is at first hard to adjust to. it creates a useful distance, and underlines the power of the cruel hand of Fate, moving its victims across an apocalyptic landscape to a shockingly violent conclusion, one you would do well not to preview online before viewing the film.

Of his three adaptations - Ran being a masterful retelling of King Lear and The Bad Sleep Well using elements of Hamlet - this is the least accessible, but also the most visionary and unique. Oddly enough, it has similarities to Orson Welles' earlier adaptation made half a world away. Both films focus on tribal symbolism, are doused in fog and could never conceivably have had the same impact in color.

If you're interested in either Japanese cinema or Shakespeare, this should definitely be near the top of your list. As an entry-point to Kurosawa's catalog, you'd probably be better off with some less weighty fare.

As much as I praise Mifune, it may well be Yamada who stands out in Kurosawa's version of Macbeth. Her Lady Macbeth is one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen, a forerunner to Sadako. Dressed in Noh make-up, slow moving like the world's most effective predator, unblinking, she is, without a doubt, the true lady Macbeth. She turns Mifune towards murder, and, although she is seen going mad at the end, we do not see her die. The tragedy of the tale is heightened by the fact that we are told at the start what will happen. Every shot Kurosawa composes is memorable. The arrow through the neck, the thread spinning witch in the forest, Mifune turning his back on his master, all are haunting and unforgettable. This film cannot be praised enough, and although it is not a horror movie, it puts all modern horror movies to shame with its deadly atmosphere. Great Quotes: Asaji. ‘Every samurai longs to be the master of a castle'. 10 out of ten.

As most people know, this is Shakespeare's Macbeth rendered by Kurosawa into Noh format for cinema. Not for nothing is Akira Kurosawa regarded as Japan's greatest director, for this is the best cinematic version of any Shakespeare play (and also one of Kurosawa's best films). Kurosawa had the advantage of working in a different language (Japanese), so he didn't have to agonize over the usual dilemma - whether to use Shakespeare's rotund oratory and blank verse (which is glorious, but goes badly on screen). Kurosawa essentially translates Shakespeare's poetry into visual images, while keeping dialogue to a minimum. He also had the good fortune of accessing two great cultures - European literature and Japanese visual art (he was originally a painter before entering cinema as a set-designer). There are many painterly images reminiscent of Ukiyo-e (e.g. Washizu full of arrows).

The Noh style of acting (like Kabuki, but more refined) seems stilted and exaggerated for the first few minutes; then you realize that is ideally suited to a story like this - more natural acting would seem out of place, as other Macbeth-movies go to prove.

The Japanese title of this film translates as "Cobweb Castle" (or Spider City) and this really should have been the title in English. The film is full of the notion of spiders spinning webs (and plots) in secret. It is worth noting that the witch (or "monster") is first seen with a ghostly spinning-wheel. This symbolizes the thread of fate, but also reflects the cobweb theme.

The story is sometimes slow-moving, but you have to realize that this is a story of insidious slow rot (hence the references to spiders and cobwebs). The decay is punctured by occasional bursts of violent action, as befits the story. The black-and-white picture adds to the creepiness, and the atmosphere is so thick that the movie works more effectively than "Ran" (Kurosawa's more polished Shakespeare-adaptation).

Macbeth is the great-granddaddy of the entire horror genre, and Kurosawa is a worthy descendant.