Throne of Blood

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Insomniac X Captivating period drama with epic mise en scene and a white knuckle performance by Toshiro Mifune. Kurosawa wisely simplifies the plot of Macbeth in order to emphasize its interplay of primal emotional drives and desires. The film's only weakness is that some of its most powerful moments occur offscreen, undermining its emotional depth and complexity. Nonetheless, timeless themes and iconic imagery solidify Throne of Blood as an undisputed classic. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/13/25 Full Review Neal C This is definitely Akira kowisowas darkest film yet and it’s a really good one to. Based off of Shakespears play Macbeth and try’s telling the audience that everything comes with consequences 8/10 Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/09/24 Full Review Sachin E Finally it was a Japanese guy in the 1950s who made an authentic film adaptation of a 1600s British play. Although Throne of Blood is set in feudal Japan unlike Macbeth which was set in medieval Scotland, Kurosawa has succesfully transformed Shakespearean literature into a visual extravaganza. And yet, Throne of Blood is not a mere adapation, it is a masterpiece on its own. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/30/24 Full Review Alec B It's a pretty outstanding adaptation/reinterpretation of "Macbeth" with Mifune's unhinged performance anchoring the film. The ending features one of cinema's great death scenes. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/05/24 Full Review Matthew B Throne of Blood is generally regarded as one of Akira Kurosawa's coldest Samurai movies. There is none of the roguish good humour of The Hidden Forest, the elegiac humanism of Seven Samurai, the amused cynicism of Yojimbo or the light-hearted fun of Sanjuro. Throne of Blood is a study of evil, and there are no wholly identifiable characters here. Kurosawa uses a number of methods to detach the viewer from the emotional pull of the story. He employs few camera close-ups, concentrating on the composition of an entire scene instead. We are literally distanced from the characters. There is the pageantry of a funeral procession and battles. In domestic scenes, the camera points face-on at the characters but they are typically not close to the camera, and do not look into it. Exterior settings are wet or misty. The weather often plays a part in establishing the mood in a Kurosawa film. Here the castle exterior is a set created on Mount Fuji. Appropriately enough, given the precarious position of all the major characters, it is located on a cliff edge. It is constantly viewed through the fog. The mist envelopes everything in Throne of Blood, both castle and surrounding forest. The action takes place in Cobweb Castle and Cobweb Forest, and the names are important. The thick layers of fog give the impression that the characters are lost in a dense cloud of unknowing (figuratively and sometimes literally). The mist also creates the impression of characters trapped in a spider's lair. Only there are a number of spiders all spinning their own threads and threatening to swallow up any number of victims. The action is not entirely set outdoors. The indoors settings also add to the claustrophobic and intense ambience of the film. The courtyard and rooms were created in a film studio. Walls and armour are painted in dark colours. The rooms are wide and seemingly spacious, but the ceilings are artificially low to create a cramped effect. Presentation of the action is stylised, and not naturalistic. Actors often rasp and scream their lines hysterically. The film begins and ends with a chorus describing and commenting on the plot. There is no concession to western influences in the choice of music score, which largely comprises a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and drums. Kurosawa also drew heavily on the influence of Noh drama to give the film an artificial feel. This is reflected in the body movements of the characters, the use of masks, the set design, the make-up worn by the female characters, and the general theme of impermanence. Are the characters in Throne of Blood mere pawns of fate? Perhaps. There are genuinely supernatural elements here. The witch is seen by more than one person, and her prophecies, even the more unusual ones, come true. The men's fates are seemingly predestined. There are later portents of fate. The site of Miki's ghost might be put down to the disturbed mind of Washizu, but what are we to make of Miki's horse turning wild at the time when the plot on his life draws near, or the birds flying away from Washizu's castle when his own end is in sight? Still the characters are manipulated by their own greed, ambition and fears as much as by supernatural forces. The spirit's prophecies are deliberately designed to make the events happen, and to thoroughly corrupt those who believe them, but only by appealing to the darkness that is already in their souls. Unlike Macbeth, the Shakespeare's play that inspired Throne of Blood, there is no strong Malcolm figure to restore order at the end. We see only the devastation. The action is once more lost in the all-consuming mist, and it seems likely that the cycle of violence, usurpation and blood will continue as before. I wrote a longer appreciation of Throne of Blood on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2019/11/22/throne-of-blood-1957/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/22/23 Full Review TWMax65 Overall this movie has many good qualities that are easy to notice. Toshiro Mifune acts incredibly as he always does in old Japanese movies, and what Akira Kurosawa did with the fog and directing the smoke scenes with the ghosts were very impressive. Toward the end, the movie worked really well with how the "forest" moved and how Washizu was defeated. My main problem with the movie is that many parts failed to captivate me as I had hoped they would and for a large part I found myself to be bored. Another glaring issue was that when Washizu killed the main ruler, there was literally blood on his hands that the other men should've seen it, but they didn't and didn't say or do anything! I've seen better Akira Kurosawa films, however this one wasn't all bad. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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