Throne of Blood

Released Nov 22, 1957

1h 48m

Drama

List

96%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

94%

Audience Score

10,000+ Ratings

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Read More

Read Less

Prime Video

Max

Watch Throne of Blood with a subscription on Max, rent on Prime Video, or buy on Prime Video.

Critics Consensus

A career high point for Akira Kurosawa -- and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play.

Read Critics Reviews

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Lacking the poetry of Shakespeare’s dialogue to fall back on, Kurosawa fills the void with evocative visuals.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jul 24, 2022

Full Review

Kenneth Cavander

Sight & Sound

After Rashomon and Seven Samurai, this film is even more of a disappointment because of the traces it bears of a cinematic Grand Master at work.

Mar 30, 2020

Full Review

Keith Phipps

The Dissolve

Unavoidable consequence of human ambition.

Rated: 4.5/5

Jan 13, 2014

Full Review

Howard Waldstein

CBR

This iteration of "The Scottish Play" retains most of the narrative contours, but is enhanced by Kurosawa's compositional acuity, and ability to render the adaptation with a distinctly cinematic feel.

Jun 27, 2023

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Throne of Blood transplanted Macbeth to the Edo period.

Jun 14, 2022

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Cinema

Essential viewing for anyone interested in the cinematic arts.

Rated: 4.5/5

Sep 26, 2021

Full Review

Read all reviews

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 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 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 out of 5 stars

08/15/23

Full Review

Duncan H

mesmerising throughout

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/04/23

Full Review

Yash B

I'm not sure what it is, but Akira Kurosawa's samurai films don't seem to resonate with me as much as some of his other genre attempts seem to. I think "Throne of Blood" is a good adaptation of "Macbeth," but I don't think it is one of the best from the legendary filmmaker. The movie is well made and acted and the story is good, but also a lot of the time it is also a bit slow-paced. I enjoyed watching parts of it but other times it didn't really engage me. It is possible "Macbeth" is not among my favorite Shakespeare plays, because neither of the film versions I have seen really stands out to me. Overall, I think it is a good choice for fans of Kurosawa's samurai films, but I think even in that genre there are better choices readily available.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/26/23

Full Review

william d

Turns out that Macbeth without the prose is still a pretty good story. I thought Mifune crossed the line into overacting here and there, but Kurosawa's direction is flawless. Every set piece, every scene, is perfect.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Akira Kurosawa

Director

Toshiro Mifune

Taketori Washizu

Isuzu Yamada

Asaji

Takashi Shimura

Noriyasu Odagura

Minoru Chiaki

Yoshiaki Miki

Akira Kubo

Yoshiteru

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

80%

90%

The Sword of Doom

100%

93%

Woman in the Dunes

73%

77%

Dodes 'Ka-Den

100%

69%

The Makioka Sisters

82%

82%

Street of Shame

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenwriter: Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryûzô Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni
Production Co: Toho Company Ltd., Kurosawa Production
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 22, 1957, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 17, 2016
Runtime: 1h 48m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Academy (1.33:1)

Most Popular at Home Now