Kumonosu Jô (Throne of Blood) (Macbeth) (1957)
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 1
A career high point for Akira Kurosawa -- and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0
A career high point for Akira Kurosawa -- and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 18,926
My Rating
Movie Info
Macbeth is reimagined as a samurai in feudal Japan in director Akira Kurosawa's classic adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy. Familiar with Orson Welles's more faithful adaptation, Kurosawa chose to place a more personal stamp on his version by translating the events and characters to historical Japan. The equivalent of the tragic Scottish lord is Taketoki Washizu (Toshiro Mifune), a valiant warrior whose life is transformed by an encounter with a ghostly female spirit. The spirit offers
Jan 1, 1957 Wide
May 27, 2003
Media Home Entertainment
Cast
-
Toshiro Mifune
Taketoki Washizu -
Isuzu Yamada
Asaji -
Minoru Chiaki
Yoshaki Miki -
Takashi Shimura
Noriyasu Odagura -
Akira Kubo
Yoshiteru -
Takamaru Sasaki
Kuniharu Tsuzuki -
Yoichi Tachikawa
Kunimaru -
Chieko Naniwa
Witch -
-
-
-
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (39) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (1) | DVD (15)
No doubt about it now: Japan's Akira Kurosawa must be numbered with Sergei Eisenstein and D. W. Griffith among the supreme creators of cinema.
Top CriticNo stage production could match Kurosawa's Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero -- a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows -- he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd.
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.
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.
Top CriticWidely regarded as one of the most successful film adaptations of a Bard play.
We label it amusing because lightly is the only way to take this substantially serio-comic rendering of the story of an ambitious Scot into a form that combines characteristics of the Japanese No theatre and the American Western film.
Throne Of Blood captures the spirit of Shakespeare's writing, as the driving rain, swirling fog and screeching animals lend metaphorical weight to this tale of murderous human ambition.
Throne Of Blood defeats categorisation. It remains a landmark of visual strength, permeated by a particularly Japanese sensibility, and is possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen.
More an impression of Macbeth than an actual Macbeth>/i>.
A potent adaptation that captures all the strange atmosphere of Shakespeare's play, and invests it an exhilarating, visceral aesthetic.
One of Kurosawa's best and arguably the best Shakespeare ever filmed.
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.
Toshiro Mifune gives a winning quirky performance.
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
With its all-pervading sense of doom, this is a serious contender for the finest celluloid Shakespeare of them all.
It is, in our opinion, one of the greatest of reasons to go to the movies.
One of the best Shakespearean film adaptations out there.
Audience Reviews for Kumonosu Jô (Throne of Blood) (Macbeth)
Super Reviewer
Throne of Blood is a masterpiece by one of the world's greatest film makers at the height of his powers.
Only Kurosawa could take the essence of Shakespearian stage drama and incorporate it into the medium of film as a dynamic tour de force. Yet at the same time he remains faithful to elements of Noh (a stagy traditional Japanese play-form in which design and movement are minimalized). A seeming contradiction, dynamism and static-ness yet Kurosawa masters both in the same medium. As usual; acting, writing, cinematography, sound, direction and production are all pitch perfect.
In this second Shakespearian based film by Kurosawa, focus is on the interplay of fate, free will and the fine thread the human psyche uses to weave the two together. On a more simpler level it is a man living and dying by the sword. In short what goes around comes around. What comes around for Toshiro Mifune as he gets his just deserts is a scene with straight as an arrow, perfect direction by Kurosawa leading to quite a pointed culminatin of events (pun intended...see the movie you'll understand).
Bonus features include excellent linear notes as well as the superb commentary of Donald Richie. Few people are more knowledgeable about film and Japanese film then he. The commentary is almost as interesting as the movie itself.
As usual Criterion presents its film in pristine condition. Some may complain that Criterion is too pricey but with them you get the best cinema has to offer. You cannot go wrong. One Kurosawa masterpiece packs more poignancy, punch and philosophy then 10 lesser films thus you get 10 times the movie at 5 times the price, really quite a deal if you look at it that way, 3-8-13
Super Reviewer
-
- Taketoki Washizu: I am terribly drunk...
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Kumonosu Jô (Throne of Blood) (Macbeth) yet.
Latest News on Kumonosu Jô (Throne of Blood) (Macbeth)
July 21, 2008:
Brush Up On Your Shakespeare With Our List Of The Bard's Best FilmsFriends, readers, Tomato-fans, lend me your ears. Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, we at RT...
What's Hot On RT
Every Star Trek movie listed
Star Trek is Certified Fresh
Forest Whitaker serves the White House
Trailer for Tom Hanks thriller
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 25
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 75
- Red Carpet Roundup: Star Trek Into Darkness Edition 0
- Video Interviews with Katie Aselton & Lake Bell of Black Rock 2
- VIP Access: Eli Roth talks Aftershock 1
- Total Recall: Star Trek Movies 85
- Parental Guidance: Star Trek Into Darkness 18
Top Headlines
-
J.J. Abrams Talks Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars, and More
0
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Begin a New Trilogy
4
-
Mickey Rourke Confirmed for Expendables 3
3
-
Brad Bird Still Mulling Incredibles 2
0
-
Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, and Martin Short Join Inherent Vice
0
-
Bruce Willis Makes an Expiration Date
2
-
Drew Pearce Hired for Mission: Impossible 5
0
Foreign Titles
- Das Schloss im Spinnwebwald (DE)
- Throne of Blood (Kumonosu jo) (UK)


"Throne of Blood" is Kurosawa's rendition of "The Tragedy of Macbeth". Those familiar with the story of Macbeth would know how it plays out. Despite the predictability of the story (only because the story is known to many and there have been various adaptations of the play over the years), Kurosawa crafts a powerful and gripping drama, transposing the plot of Macbeth to feudal Japan.
The film tells the story of a Samurai Commander, Washizu (Toshiro Mifune), a valiant warrior working under Lord Tzuzuki. Triggered by an ominous prediction by an 'evil spirit', and further fuelled by the poisoning of his mind by his wife, Lady Asaji, Washizu turns greedy and his lust for power makes him commit regicide. The rest of the film details the bitter aftermath of his actions.
Akira Kurosawa supposedly takes significant liberties with the original plot but the differences are insignificant, as the focus lies on the heinous acts committed by the central character, abetted by his wife, and the eventual catastrophe that lies in store for the both of them. There is a lot of ironical symbolism going on in the film. So while the evil spirit (akin to the three witches in Macbeth) makes prophecies about what the future holds for Washizu, there is that long yet outstanding sequence in which Washizu and Commander Miki are trying to find their way to the castle through the dense fog...they cannot really "see ahead". At one point, they are shown riding into the fog, into the screen and away from the viewer, they soon come back riding to the same point, visible again on the screen, showing how uncertain they are of their direction. The fog then probably represents the inherent inability of a human being to see "what lies ahead"!
There is a constant sense of doom and despair in the latter part of the film, just like in Kurosawa's adaptation of another tragedy of Shakespeare ('King Lear'), the magnificent "Ran". Kurosawa's use of some Japanese chants in the beginning and the end of the film add an eerie touch to the narrative. Especially the beginning which shows the remains of what used to be Cobweb Castle. "Throne of Blood" also has one of the best, masterfully filmed climaxes in the history of Kurosawa films...one, during which you are likely to skip a beat!
The camerawork is astounding as usual...which is not entirely a surprise, for this is, after all, a Kurosawa film! I can't help but mention here that Kurosawa would've excelled in making a horror film as well, and it shows with the manifestation of his vivid imagination of a radiating ghostly being spinning a yarn on a wheel deep in the dark woods....and its reappearance later amidst some excellent sound effects..these scenes are spine-chilling to say the least!
There are some shortcomings though, which albeit minor, must be highlighted. Although the main focus of the film is the character of Washizu, some other very important characters are hardly developed or get almost no screen time! Best examples are the characters of Miki (Minoru Chiaki) and Noriyasu (Takashi Shimura). Takashi Shimura is one of the finest talents from the Kurosawa camp, yet he gets about five minutes of screen time in this! Ditto for Minoru Chiaki (who played the memorable role of Heihachi in "Seven Samurai"), who I think gets about five minutes more than Shimura!
As for Lady Asaji, the scheming wife of Washizu, played by Isuzu Yamada; this character makes quite an impression, but one wonders why Kurosawa had to get such inconsistent and hence, unnatural acting done from her. For example, when she is doing some of her brainwashing acts on Washizu, she appears deadpan, stares at the wall and acts almost ghost-like with hardly any expression and talks without any tone modulation. But then again in other scenes, particularly during a feast and in a later, very important scene she seems to go overboard with animated emotions! She pulls both these extreme acts really well, but then the inconsistency in mannerisms of the character renders the character unnatural! Perhaps she is supposed to be another 'evil spirit' personified and hence such a representation?! Maybe....
But the man who rules the film in the acting department has to be the great Toshiro Mifune, whose fantabulous performance leaves you breathless and gasping for more! His amazing display of a range of emotions and the sheer energy he puts into his performance is applause-worthy.
All said, "Throne of Blood" is a terrific film, and one of Kurosawa's greatest works. But it is very short by Kurosawa standards with a running time of about 105 minutes. The film itself is captivating and reaches its end before you know it. However,...and I rarely say this, the film should've been longer by at least another half hour; to focus more on the aforementioned important characters that drive the story.....or simply for giving Takashi Shimura some more screen time!