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Summary: Shakespeare-san
Review: The story of Macbeth is firmly rooted in western minds in Birnam Wood, and this is well-portrayed in Roman Polanski's version of the tale (q.v.). Akira Kurosawa, however, who was long a fan of Western culture over his native Japanese society, has translated it well for the feudal Japanese setting into which he injects it. It loses some of the beauty of Shakespeare's original language, as a previous review suggested, but the story drives along at a pleasing clip and the characters pop off the screen and stick with you. Toshiro Mifune's portrayal of the warlord Washizu is much more pleasing to this viewer than his role in "Yojimbo," the movie that made him a star. One note of intrest only to people like myself: this movie is worthless for practising Japanese. The "nihongo" in this movie is out of date and doesn't jibe with what you get in your college courses.
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Summary: A fresh and stunning version of Shakespeare's classic
Review: The story of "Macbeth" lends itself so beautifully to this film's Japanese setting that it's easy to forget that it was ever set anywhere else. Toshiro Mifune is amazing here, as are the other actors, and the direction is, of course, superb. There are so many other great elements in this movie, I don't know where to start praising them. I still wonder how they managed to pull off the final "arrow" sequence and the shot of the woods advancing is one of the most haunting images in cinema history. This is a must-see film for any movie fan--as entertaining as it is artful.
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Summary: An Inspired Interpretation - Kurosawa at his best
Review: Kurosawa gives us a glimpse into horror and tragedy with a few new twists to the classic plot. Be prepared to see the wood come to the castle and Mifune's terror was real - Kurosawa used some real arrows!
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Summary: Akira Kurosawa's Japanese version of Macbeth
Review: I'm a student from Nagoya International School and have just seen the movie "Throne of Blood" in our unit in Shakespeare's Macbeth. By watching the movie, I saw how Kurosawa has adapted Shakespeare's Macbeth to a setting in the Japanese feudal time period. As a person who reads and speaks Japanese, I felt the Japanese title "Kumonosu jou", meaning Spider-web castle had a strong impact on the film. One of the most interesting characters in both Throne of Blood and Macbeth was the witch. The witch took a big part in the story where he/she tells Macbeth his destiny. This drives Macbeth to his tragic end. In the original version of Macbeth, there were 3 witches telling Macbeth his future which motivated Macbeth to his murders. But in Kurosawa$B!G(Bs Throne of Blood, when Washizu was lost in the woods, he meets an old man spinning a wheel and making thread. By seeing that, I thought Kurosawa recognized that the witches controlled the story in the original version of Macbeth. So the old man spinning symbolized that the witch had everything in control. I think that is another reason that Kurosawa named his film Spider-web Castle, with the idea of spider-web suggesting the witch was in control of everything. I recommend this film to students who have read Macbeth and studied the play carefully, as they will be are able to compare this film to the original version of the play and enjoy the differences between the two.
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Summary: Two great tastes that go great together!
Review: Kurosawa and Shakespeare are a winning combination. With "Throne of Blood," Kurosawa strips Macbeth to the bare bones of plot, then packs on new flesh in the form of scheming ambition in feudal Japan. In this version, Washizu (Macbeth) is somewhat simple, and content with what comes his way, be it castle or fort, honor or deceit. His wife, the infamous Lady Macbeth, is chillingly calm and dangerous. She has no interest in her husband's contentment, and knows that the only way to advance her position is to advance the position of her husband, by whatever means necessary. Her role as the spider is particularly suited to the halls of the Cobweb Castle. The acting and filming are up to the quality that one expects from Kurosawa and Mifune. The pacing of the film is full of dynamic contrasts, going from heart-pounding action to patient silence. This film is not spoon-fed to you, but demands your concentration. The visuals are particularly stunning in "Throne of Blood." The cobweb forest is haunting, and the single weird sister, all in white spinning in a white cage, maintains the same chilling calmness of Washizu's wife. One of the many nice touches of "Throne of Blood" is the chance to see that Samurai at the height of their power. These are not the poor, struggling warriors of "Seven Samurai" or "Yojimbo." Washizu is decked out in full armor for the bulk of the film, and his castle is defended and attacked by well-dressed armies. Each lord is powerful and wields mighty forces. Oh, and of course, the big finish. All I can say is wow.
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Summary: Kurosawa's "Macbeth" Does Shakespeare Justice
Review: "Throne of Blood", aka "Castle of the Spider's Web", is the third Kurosawa film that I've seen, and it's definitely different from the other two ("The Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress"). It's much more somber and introspective, less action-oriented, and the general theme centers on ambition and fate rather than cooperative action to overcome a common problem. The film is an adaptation of "Macbeth"; only instead of taking place in medieval Scotland, it's set in feudal Japan. I tend to be a Shakespeare purist, but I really enjoyed the different historical setting. Warlords, samurai and huge, squat fortresses are depicted in full glory. The samurai costumes are so beautiful and intricately detailed that I had to pause the film just to stare at them. In addition, the dialogue and acting have been altered to fit a Japanese setting. Many of the scenes are shot in the Noh style, which is a very old, very classical form of Japanese theater. In Noh, the drama plays out on bare stages. In order to compensate for such sparse environments, the acting tends to be highly stylized. To Western audiences, this may translate as unrealistic, but to Eastern, I presume it comes off as compelling. Toshiro Mifune plays the title character, Washizu, who receives predictions of power and glory from a forest spirit. Spurred on by his ambitious, scheming wife, Washizu commits heinous acts in order to fulfill the prophecy. The effect is like a tightening noose as Washizu becomes ensnared in his own web of ambition. The final scene is a cinema classic. Never one to go for cheap effects, Kurosawa uses professional archers and real arrows, and Mifune's reaction is genuine. The scene visualizes the claustrophobic mood of the film and the idea of inescapable fate. Kurosawa was a master of this type of filmmaking. I'm always impressed by how much Kurosawa accomplishes with so little. Take the forest spirit, for example. He simply shot her in blinding white light and removed all high notes from her voice. It's effectively creepy, yet it's something filmmakers today, with their multimillion-dollar CGI effects, would not even attempt. It's for these moments of filmmaking ingenuity, which "Throne of Blood" abounds in, that Kurosawa has become so well respected.
"Throne of Blood", despite a few slow parts and some overacting, is a gripping, haunting and worthwhile journey. It's also great filmmaking. I wouldn't recommend it to Kurosawa neophytes, but once you're hooked on the master of Japanese cinema, it's definitely one to seek out. If you're looking to purchase, the Criterion DVD is well worth the price; the film looks great and the commentary by Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck is entertaining and informative.
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Summary: Throne of Blood
Review: Akira Kurosawa reworks Shakespeare's Macbeth in the visually stunning and exciting THRONE OF BLOOD.
I liked this movie quite a bit. Some scenes - like when the two samurai played by Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kubo race through the Spider Web Forest trying to chase away the evil spirit - are breathtaking. The culmination of the final battle is impossibly well done. I can't think of any director whose action scenes I've enjoyed more than Kurosawa's.
About halfway through this one I wondered what someone unfamiliar with Shakespeare's play would make of this movie. Beyond the action scenes the acting is highly stylized. Mifune's wife is played by Isuzu Yamada in what could best be described as a minimalist approach. Her character barely moves and her face seems frozen in an expressionless mask. Mifune's character, on the other hand, always - always - wears a fierce expression. I assume it's all traditional Japanese theater stylizations, but the characters remain at a distance and you're never allowed near them.
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Summary: "Ambition makes the man..."
Review: In this 1957 film directed by Akira Kurosawa, Lord Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Lord Miki (Akira Kubo) encounter a spirit in a maze-like forest that prophesies great things for the two comrades: the former will someday rule the imposing Spider's Web Castle and the latter will take his friend's position as commander of the First Fortress. Even beyond that, the spirit predicts that Miki's son will one day succeed Washizu as the master of Spider's Web Castle. Although the two men are initially reluctant to trust the spirit's words, preliminary parts of the prophecy come to pass, thus setting into motion a bloody chain of events that explores the differences between active and passive destiny. Lady Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), Washizu's scheming wife, prods her husband to seize the reigns of power at any cost. She insists that Washizu's only restraint is his own ambition and that heaven itself had preordained his rise.
Here, of course, is where the trouble begins. Asaji is initially convinced of the legitimacy of the spirit's words and points out to her husband that without his doing anything, part of the prophecy had come to pass. She then declares that Washizu must take the next step of killing the Great Lord in order to fulfill his destiny. And yet there is an obvious question that arises at this point...Miki's son, skeptical of the prospect of his succession to the throne of Spider's Web Castle, tells his father that the spirit's prophecy is only coming true because he and Washizu took it upon themselves to make it so; was it fate or was it a series of man-made coincidences? Asaji paradoxically takes both views as she becomes enraged at the thought of Miki's son and his posterity being the ones to benefit most from Washizu's deeds. Now discounting the inevitability of the spirit's words, Asaji demands that Washizu put an end to Miki and his son to clear the way for their own unborn child. Will Washizu trust the spirit and remain passive or will he actively take matters into his own hand? Will he succeed in rebuffing the spirit and shaping his own destiny or will he fail and fulfill the prophecy anyway?
The film itself is excellently done (it doesn't get much better than Mifune and Kurosawa working together) and as with most Criterion Collection DVDs, this one is filled with extras. My favorite feature is the two separate English-language subtitlings. The first is a bit more literary and not quite as literal (I'm so clever sometimes). The second is more conservative and stays closer to a truly accurate translation. Compare these sentences: "he has imbibed too freely" as opposed to "he has had too much wine." Because this is a period drama, the first feels more appropriate to me, especially since the status-based honorifics of Japanese culture (-san, -sama, -dono, etc.) generally lend themselves to older modes of the English language when translating them. The more lyrical translation can be a bit much at times, however, so I can certainly understand why someone would be inclined to prefer the more accurate one.
Though I was not particularly enthusiastic about the price-tag of this film, I was satisfied with the results. Highly recommended to all those with a penchant for high quality cinema.
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Summary: Throne of Blood....
Review: I was enormously fascinated by the film "The Throne of Blood" we just watched as part of our pre-AP English course in Nagoya International School, Japan. The film adopts the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth with a Japanese setting. Macbeth is characterized as a Japanese warrior, the head of the 1st fort. After the victory, he sees a spirit (the witch-equivalent) in the forest on his way to the shogun's castle. As he has predicted, he was awarded the prestigious status of the head of the castle.
The king decided to visit his castle one day to organize a plan to kill the Banquo-equivalent character. He is extremely proud of the trust that the king has in order to arrange such an important event, but his wife believes that the king insists on killing him instead. The big gap between his optimism and his wife's pessimism leads him to the road of Tragedy.
I believe the director of the film could easily adopt the setting very similar to that of the original Macbeth, thanks to the similarities in the feudal system of Japan and Scotland. Japan also believed in the existence of spirits and how the nobleman was ranked in status was similar to that of Scotland. Kurosawa would've struggled creating The Throne of Blood if he, for example, adopted dynastic China or the Kingdom of Thailand as the scene instead of Japan.
All of the characters in "The Throne of Blood" successfully and accurately emulated the characters in the Shakespearean version. Although there were some changes in their persona (such as the Lady Macbeth character was a more modest figure than the original), all characters kept their qualities, tendencies and their role.
To people whom read Macbeth in the past, this movie is definitely worth the watch. Viewers can receive the same impression and the excitement of Macbeth with a totally different setting.
Koya
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Summary: Mai Kanamori from NIS, "Macbeth and Washizu"
Review:
One man's life with full of ups and downs is pictured in the film, "The Throne of Blood", directed by Akira Kurosawa. This film is a Japanese re-make version of the famous Shakespearean play, Macbeth. Because this film is a Japanese film, many details differ from Macbeth, although the basic plot of the story is the same. All the plot changes, character and setting differences are effective choices for this film because it adds a different taste to the original form of the story.
Most plot changes in the film due to cultural differences make the plot in this film natural and flowing, with a little twist at the end. Some detailed plot adaptations that the director had to make included Washizu (playing the role of Macbeth) taking over the Cob-web castle, Miki (playing the role of Lady Macbeth) being pregnant and Washizu being killed by his own men towards the end of the story. In medieval Japan, a man taking over a castle did not necessarily mean that he can be the Emperor of Japan, unlike Macbeth aiming to be the King from the start. Therefore, Washizu did not kill the Emperor, but he had to kill the others competing for the castle. However, the conflicts between Washizu and the other competent is similar to Macbeth's because the goal that they both had in mind was to achieve power. In this film, Miki's pregnancy does not seem to have a dramatical change in the plot of the story, but is thought to be necessary for this Japanese film. The reason for this is because the couple wanted their own child to inherit his throne after his death. This inheriting system is similar to the one in Macbeth, but this director decided to add this detail in to reveal the great desires of Washizu. After all of the killing and the struggles to take over the castle, Washizu did not want any other person but his child who shares his blood to inherit the throne. The climax of this film comes when hundreds of soldiers by Washizu's side points their arrows at him and one by one hits him. This is another plot adaptations that has been made for this film because the soldiers wanted to show the sign of surrender. Giving Washizu's head represented surrender. This change made the film more violent thus added a twist with an unexpected ending. In making changes, it is very important that the plot flows and that it is natural. This sort of change is needed because there is no fun in a film or story that is completely same from the original form.
The main character, Washizu is very different from the characteristic that Macbeth has. Washizu is brave, confident, demanding and more selfish than the Shakespearean Macbeth. A Shogun (similar position as the Thane when referring to Macbeth) has to be strong, determined and brave to take over a castle. Unlike Macbeth, he was demanding his wife and the tone of his speech was overall strong. The director probably wanted to express the image of a brave man going through one straight road towards his goal, but ending with a tragic death. This is maybe a typical image of a Shogun during the medieval Japan. One thing that is not expressed because of this characterization of Washizu, is the gradual change of Washizu the beginning to the end of the story. This is an important change to express because in Macbeth, he is growing to become more aggressive and greedy as he overcomes the obstacles to become the King. Similarly, Miki's characterization is different form Lady Macbeth too. Lady Macbeth was a pretty strong woman, telling her husband what to do. However, Miki was not like her because she was under a circumstance where she cannot, since Washizu was a demanding person. But overall, the two characters played the Japanese actors were very well suited for this version of Macbeth.
"The Throne of Blood" was set in medieval Japan, when Shoguns from each castle fought to prove the strongest castle and warlords. this setting is very suited to fit a story like Macbeth into. Both setting has Lords, Emperor/King, and warriors. This made it possible for details to be expressed in the film. An example of one detail is one of the three apparitions that the old lady, gave to Washizu. When the old lady told him that he will be victorious unless the wood nears the neighbor comes down to Washizu's castle. Since medieval castle in Japan were constructed on the top of the fort and used forests and woods as one of the protection and security methods, this apparition was realistic. The director chose Japan as the setting of this film, probably because many things matched with the original setting. Technically, it is a completely different setting but it is good enough to reproduce a similar story which is very impressive.
If people who have never seen or heard about Macbeth happens to see "The Throne of Blood" will not think that this film is a reproductive of a Shakespearean play. This is how almost perfectly Macbeth and The Throne of Blood matches. The changes were made rather to improve the film. Washizu and Macbeth, both who lived a fast and tragic life possess a lifestyle that people today can still learn and achieve from. That is the power of films and stories. "The Throne of Blood" will always be the classical and perfect example of a successful reproductive film.
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