Throne of Blood review

In 1956, director Akira Kurosawa started work on his own Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. In keeping with the original stage feel of the play, Kurosawa presented it with elements of traditional Noh musical stage dramas—complete with characters whose faces closely resemble Noh masks—while still basically sticking to his film roots and accomplishing special effects that could never be pulled off in a stage production. Those familiar with Macbeth will easily recognize the parallels between stories, with the major tweaks coming simply to convert a story about the Scottish monarchy to one set in Japan’s Warring States Period. In the end you basically have an adaptation of one of the best plays in history directed by one of the greatest filmmakers in history. Sounds pretty good, right? Correct.

The film begins as Spider’s Web Castle—named for the maze-like “Spider Web Forest” surrounding it—receives word that their forward armies are being overwhelmed by enemy forces and their defensive towers are all but sacked. The sovereign and his resident lords agree that the best course of action is to fortify their defenses at the castle and hope the forest maze confuses their enemies enough to give them an advantage in the inevitable onslaught. However, two powerful tower lords: Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki), are eventually able to defeat the attacking army and win the day. For their heroism and prowess in battle, the two lords are summoned to Spider’s Web Castle for what will surely be a rousing celebration of their bravery.

While venturing through the Spider’s Web forest, taking a route both men have taken hundreds of times before, they somehow find themselves lost after a sudden, odd downpour of rain. Convinced they hear evil spirits in the trees, Washizu and Miki chase the shadows until they come upon a white-haired witch sitting inside a makeshift bamboo cage. In a distorted, creepy voice, the witch offers them a set of unlikely prophecies: Washizu will be appointed Lord of the North Garrison on this night and will later become sovereign of Spider’s Web Castle. Miki will simply be appointed Lord of the First Tower—Washizu’s old post—but his son will go on to become ruler of Spider’s Web Castle himself. At first the two men dismiss these predictions as the mad ramblings of an evil spirit, but when they’re later made Lord of the Northern Garrison and First Tower respectively, they find it difficult to hide their shock.

Washizu is, at first, perfectly content to simply live out his days as Lord of the North Garrison. However, his wife, the calculating Lady Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), warns him that if Miki ever told the current Lord of Spider Web’s Castle about the spirit’s prophecy he would surely try to kill Washizu and eliminate any threat to his position. Thus begins a spiral of betrayal and murder, spurred on by Asaji’s cold-hearted advisement and Washizu’s own crumbling mental state. Like Macbeth, Washizu is slowly consumed by his own lust for power and driven to madness by his own actions.

For such an ambitious undertaking as Macbeth, Kurosawa manages to pull everything off without a hitch. Although simplistic by today’s standards, his special effects flourishes are seamlessly edited and his action scenes look downright dangerous—in an impressive way. Everything from high-speed horse chases to shooting each other with arrows was done for real by the actual actors involved and it really shows onscreen. In one iconic scene, Mifune is shot at with and surrounded by real arrows that missed unarmored parts of his body by no more than a few inches several times. The creepy, death-obsessed tone of the film really does justice to the source material in a way that no western adaptations have been able to thus far, making “Throne of Blood” a must-see classic not only of Japanese cinema, but cinema in general.

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Availability:

US distributor Criterion released “Throne of Blood” on region 1 DVD with English subtitles on May 27, 2003. As you might expect from Criterion, this fully remastered transfer is spot-on and extremely crisp compared to other transfers, making this a must-have release for fans of classic cinema. For full specs, see this link.

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