RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Throne of Blood (1957)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
97 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:32

Fresh:31

Rotten:1

Average Rating:8.6/10

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

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Akira Kurosawa's stunning reconception of Shakespeare's MACBETH is a dark samurai drama, set in feudal Japan. As the film begins, two soldiers--Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru... Akira Kurosawa's stunning reconception of Shakespeare's MACBETH is a dark samurai drama, set in feudal Japan. As the film begins, two soldiers--Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki)--find themselves lost in a dense forest during a powerful thunderstorm. Seemingly unable to leave the woods, they encounter a ghostly old woman who predicts that Washizu will soon rise to power. At the goading of his ruthless wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), Washizu embarks on a murderously ambitious path and quickly fulfills the prophecy. However, his ascension is cursed by his brutal actions and soon opposition arises to challenge his blood-stained rule. One of the finest Shakespeare adaptations to appear in any medium, Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD is covered in an entrancingly macabre web. The always-amazing Mifune gives one of his greatest performances as the haunted yet unrelenting Lord Washizu, while Yamada portrays the eeriest version of Lady Macbeth to ever grace the screen or stage. A master of reinterpretation, Kurosawa incorporates strong elements of Japanese Noh drama into the film, and the result adds to the somber and chilling mood. The film's highlight, however, is the tense and skillfully paced finale, which features Washizu literally up against the wall as he faces an army of vengeful archers. [More]

Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura

Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenwriter: Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Story: William Shakespeare

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Sep 15, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • The greatest screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth is Akira Kurosawa's visceral THRONE OF BLOOD (Kumonosu jo), starring Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada as the ambitious warrior and ruthless wife who try to murder their way to power and glory. Featuring some of the Japanese master's most unforgettable, hallucinatory imagery, inspired by Noh theater as much as the classical source, this is Kurosawa at his atmospheric best.
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Throne of Blood

    • T-Meter Critics
    • Top Critics
    • RT Community
    • My Critics
    • My Friends
    • DVD
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 >> >|
    Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
     
     
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    03/26/09
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Akira Kurosawa's remarkable 1957 restaging of Macbeth in samurai and expressionist terms is unquestionably one of his finest works -- charged with energy, imagination, and, in keeping with the subject, sheer horror.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 1 Comment
    07/01/08
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Film4 | comment Comment
    07/01/08
    Film4
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    One of Kurosawa's best and arguably the best Shakespeare ever filmed.

    Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
    05/30/08
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Combustible Celluloid

    In fact, in the scene where Lady Asaji leaves a room and disappears into the darkness to get sake to make the guards drunk, the ominous rustling of her silk gown is as chilling as Lady Macbeth's lines.

    Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
    10/06/07
    Beth Accomando
    Beth Accomando
    KPBS.org

    Toshiro Mifune gives a winning quirky performance.

    Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    04/05/07
    Dennis Schwartz
    Dennis Schwartz
    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    Transplanted to medieval Japan, Kurosawa's brutal film is one of the best Shakesperean adaptations on screen, with a tour de force performance from Toshiro Mifune; it makes a fascinating double bill with the masterful Ran

    Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
    01/04/07
    Emanuel Levy
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    With its all-pervading sense of doom, this is a serious contender for the finest celluloid Shakespeare of them all.

    Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
    12/30/06
    David Parkinson
    David Parkinson
    Empire Magazine

    It's visually ravishing, as you would expect, employing compositional tableaux from the Noh drama, high contrast photography, and extraordinary images of rain, galloping horses, the birds fleeing from the forest.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    02/09/06
    Time Out
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    01/07/05
    Philip Martin
    Philip Martin
    Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    03/10/04
    Mark Palermo
    Mark Palermo
    Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

    It is, in our opinion, one of the greatest of reasons to go to the movies.

    comment Comment
    03/09/04
    Jake Euker
    Jake Euker
    F5 (Wichita, KS)

    One of the best Shakespearean film adaptations out there.

    comment Comment
    02/22/04
    Widgett Walls
    Widgett Walls
    Needcoffee.com

    Genius. No, really: Genius. Obviously.

    comment Comment
    01/21/04
    Gregory Weinkauf
    Gregory Weinkauf
    New Times

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    11/04/03
    Frank Swietek
    Frank Swietek
    One Guy's Opinion

    Kurosawa's film ranks as a classic that holds up over the years for its tight construction and masterful cinematic technique

    Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | comment Comment
    07/31/03
    John A. Nesbit
    John A. Nesbit
    Old School Reviews

    This is filmmaking with risk and greatness in its blood.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    07/30/03
    TV Guide's Movie Guide
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Filters themes of greed and power lust through visuals that are so rich and densely textured that they take on a life of their own.

    Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
    07/30/03
    James Kendrick
    James Kendrick
    Q Network Film Desk

    Throne of Blood, Akira Kurosawa's searing adaptation of Macbeth, fluidly weaves Shakespeare's fluid lyricism with a distinct Japanese flavor.

    Full Review Source: Film and Felt | comment Comment
    07/29/03
    Gabe Leibowitz
    Gabe Leibowitz
    Film and Felt

    May not approach the lofty standards of something like The Seven Samurai, but it certainly stands as one of the director’s finest and most accessible efforts.

    Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
    07/23/03
    Scott Weinberg
    Scott Weinberg
    Apollo Guide
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 >> >|
    all

    Latest News for Throne of Blood

    July 21, 2008: Brush Up On Your Shakespeare With Our List Of The Bard's Best Films
    Friends, readers, Tomato-fans, lend me your ears. Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, we at RT humbly present to you the Greatest Shakespeare Movies, a list of the Bard's... More...

    See All

    More DVDs

    Close
    Top Rentals
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    40% 40% Surrogates
    83% 83% Whip It
    29% 29% Gamer
    97% 97% The Hurt Locker
    81% 81% Michael Jackson's This…

    More Rentals…

    New On DVD This Week
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    87% 87% A Serious Man
    37% 37% The Time Traveler's Wife
    78% 78% Bronson
    11% 11% The Stepfather

    More New Releases…

    See All

    RT On Current TV

    The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

    DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

    Learn how you can be part of the show

    More...

    What’s Hot On RT

    Runaways Pictures

    Runaways Pictures

    Run away with Kristen and Dakota!

    Other News

    Close
    • Top Stories
    • Popular
    • Interviews
     
     

    Comments

     
     
    Top Stories
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Tom Cruise Accepts Another Mission: Impossible Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
    32
    • Chris Nolan on Board for Dark Knight Sequel -- and Superman Reboot? Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
    258
    • Tim Robbins Joins Green Lantern Source: Hollywood Reporter
    58
    • Fox Moves Forward with 24 Movie Source: HitFix
    8
    • Bill Murray Talks Ghostbusters III Source: Sunday Mail [UK]
    56
    • Captain America News, News, and More News Source: Collider.com
    20
    • Taylor Lautner Is Stretch Armstrong Source: MTV
    78
    • Weekly Ketchup: Sci-Fi at the Oscars, Raimi eyes The Shadow
    288
    • Percy Jackson Star (Briefly) Rumored for Spider-Man Reboot Source: Hollywood Reporter
    35
    • Five Facts About Alice in Wonderland
    140
    Popular
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Total Recall: Jeff Bridges' Best Movies
    114
    • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Avatar Finally Toppled by Dear John
    104
    • Weekly Ketchup: Sci-Fi at the Oscars, Raimi eyes The Shadow
    96
    • Five Facts About Alice in Wonderland
    70
    • Five Favorite Films With Precious' Gabby Sidibe
    35
    • Friday Harvest: The Last Airbender, The A-Team, and more!
    27
    • Critics Consensus: From Paris With Love Is Not Bon
    22
    • Total Recall: Anthony Hopkins' Best Movies
    18
    • Five Favourite Films with Anika Noni Rose
    17
    • Awards Tour: Pixar and Disney Rule The Annies
    15
    Interviews
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Oscar Nominee Gabby Sidibe Talks Precious
    20
    • One Man's Quest To Find The Worst Movie Ever
    7
    • Five Favorite Films With Peter Jackson
    77
    • Robert Downey Jr. talks Sherlock Holmes & Iron Man 2 - RT Interview
    22
    • Director Ruben Fleischer Talks Zombieland
    3
    • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
    17
    • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
    13
    • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
    24
    • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
    8
    • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
    16
     
     

    Sponsored Links

    Around The Network

    • Throne of Blood at Rotten Tomatoes

    Fresh Links

    Featured
    Celebrity Yearbook Photos
    Celebrity Yearbook Photos External Link

    Check out PopEater's collection of childhood photos of celebs, from Tom Cruise to Kim Kardashian.

    Who Will Win the Oscars?
    Who Will Win the Oscars? External Link

    TIME's Richard Corliss pores over the Oscar noms for the major awards and offers his take on who will win.

    Oscar Fever = Terminal Illness?
    Oscar Fever = Terminal Illness? External Link

    For a different take, the AV Club delves into why awards season is terrible.

    Who's the Razziest?
    Who's the Razziest? External Link

    Moviefone has put together a list of the actors with the most Razzie noms ever.

    Mass Effect Movie?
    Mass Effect Movie? External Link

    Hollywood.com makes a case for a big screen adaptation of popular game Mass Effect.

    Promos
    Get the Flixster App Now!
    Get the Flixster App Now! External Link

    Download it from iTunes and get Tomatometer scores straight to your iPhone!

     
     
    About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
    IGN Logo
    About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Press | Careers
    IGN | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | Direct2Drive | GameSpy Technology
    TeamXbox | Game Sites | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
    AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | GIGA.DE | What They Play | Battlefield Heroes
    By continuing past this page, and by your continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
    Copyright 1998-2010, IGN Entertainment, Inc. | Support | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! RSS Feeds
    IGN’s enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA.
    Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.