Throne of Blood (1957)
(Kumonosu-Jo)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
Synopsis:
A warlord is tempted into seizing power by his wife and the prophecies of witches, but his wife goes insane and the equivocating witches lead him to his doom.
Review:
Shakespeare's Macbeth, with its images of chaos and impending doom, is evocatively adapted to the screen (stampeding horses, birds fluttering indoors - though an owl shriek too many perhaps) and the climactic hemming-in with arrow volleys has passed into film legend. The casualties are, naturally enough, the original poetry and also a sense of the human relationship at the drama's centre, which is much more successfully conveyed alongside the political story in Ran (complete with Macbeth-style episode).
(Kumonosu-Jo)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
Synopsis:
A warlord is tempted into seizing power by his wife and the prophecies of witches, but his wife goes insane and the equivocating witches lead him to his doom.
Review:
Shakespeare's Macbeth, with its images of chaos and impending doom, is evocatively adapted to the screen (stampeding horses, birds fluttering indoors - though an owl shriek too many perhaps) and the climactic hemming-in with arrow volleys has passed into film legend. The casualties are, naturally enough, the original poetry and also a sense of the human relationship at the drama's centre, which is much more successfully conveyed alongside the political story in Ran (complete with Macbeth-style episode).
(Kumonosu-Jo)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 105m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
Synopsis:
A warlord is tempted into seizing power by his wife and the prophecies of witches, but his wife goes insane and the equivocating witches lead him to his doom.
Review:
Shakespeare's Macbeth, with its images of chaos and impending doom, is evocatively adapted to the screen (stampeding horses, birds fluttering indoors - though an owl shriek too many perhaps) and the climactic hemming-in with arrow volleys has passed into film legend. The casualties are, naturally enough, the original poetry and also a sense of the human relationship at the drama's centre, which is much more successfully conveyed alongside the political story in Ran (complete with Macbeth-style episode).