You will find no poetry in Throne of Blood's sparse dialogue, and little subtlety in its characterisation, but its pace, atmosphere and imagery have a power that is absolutely Shakespearean. The Bard's evocation of tenth-century Scotland is brilliantly re-imagined in Kurosawa's depiction of late fifteenth-century Japan, a world full of bestial omens and foul weather. Toshiro Mifune rants and rages as Washizu, the Macbeth equivalent, spurred on by the mesmerizing Isuzu Yamada as his wife. The climatic battle gave cinema one of its most enduring images: Mifune transformed into a human pin cushion by the arrows of his own men.
Transposition of Shakespeares Macbeth to 16th century Japan. "Visually the film is a marvel because it is made of so little: fog, wind, trees, mist - the forest and t... more >
Transposition of Shakespeares Macbeth to 16th century Japan. "Visually the film is a marvel because it is made of so little: fog, wind, trees, mist - the forest and the castle. There has rarely been a blacker and a whiter, black-and-white film" Donald Richie. < less