 Original Name: Kumonosu jô
Director : Akira Kurosawa
Runtime : 105 min
Year : 1957
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Colour: Black & White
Palador DVD Code: PFE0031b1
Available As: Part of Kurosawa Box Set .
Speciality: The darkest, most compelling adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', takes the original theme and twists it into an intenste play of power, politics, and fear with haunting images. INDIE CORNER FILM: 'Murder At Monkey Hill by Vidhu Vinod Chopra document.write (''); document.write (' '); document.write (''); document.write (' '); if (typeof window.Delicious == "undefined") window.Delicious = {}; Delicious.BLOGBADGE_DEFAULT_CLASS = 'delicious-blogbadge-line';
| | THRONE OF BLOOD - SYNOPSIS | | | | | | | | SUMMARY: | | | | | | | | One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood re-imagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall. With Throne of Blood, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theatre to make a Macbeth that is all his own—a classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom. |
| | THRONE OF BLOOD - CREDITS | | | | | | | | Directed by
Written by
Produced by
Cinematography by
Production Design by | Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
Eijirô Hisaita
Hideo Oguni
William Shakespeare (play Macbeth)
Akira Kurosawa
Sojiro Motoki
Asakazu Nakai
Yoshirô Muraki |
| | | | | | | | | | | | Cast: | | | | | | | | Character's name
Taketori Washizu
Lady Asaji Washizu
Noriyasu Odagura
Yoshiteru Miki
Kunimaru Tsuzuki
Yoshiaki Miki
Kuniharu Tsuzuki
Military Commander
Washizu's workman
Old Woman at castle
Old Ghost Woman
Second Military Commander
Washizu samurai
Washizu samurai
Washizu samurai | Actor's name
Toshirô Mifune
Isuzu Yamada
Takashi Shimura
Akira Kubo
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Minoru Chiaki
Takamaru Sasaki
Kokuten Kodo
Kichijiro Ueda
Eiko Miyoshi
Chieko Naniwa
Nakajiro Tomita
Yu Fujiki
Sachio Sakai
Shin |
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| THRONE OF BLOOD - INFLUENCES & REFERENCES | | | | | | Based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
In the WB/CW series Smallville, Lex Luthor names this film as his favorite Kurosawa movie. He even owns a prop sword from the film, which he bought at an auction.
Version of
Macbeth (1908)
Macbeth (1909/II)
Macbeth (1909/I)
Macbeth (1911)
Macbeth (1913)
Macbeth (1915)
Macbeth (1916)
Macbeth (1946)
Macbeth (1948)
Macbeth (1949) (TV)
"Hallmark Hall of Fame: Macbeth" (1954)
Joe MacBeth (1955)
Macbeth (1960) (TV)
Sibirska Ledi Magbet (1961)
Istana berdarah (1964)
Macbeth I: The Politics of Power (1964)
Macbeth (1966) (TV)
"Play of the Month: Macbeth (#6.1)" (1970)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971)
Macbeth (1979) (TV)
Macbeth (1981) (V)
Macbeth (1982/I) (TV)
Macbeth (1983) (TV)
Macbeth (1987/I)
Men of Respect (1991)
"Shakespeare: The Animated Tales: Macbeth (#1.3)" (1992)
Macbeth (1997)
Macbeth (1998)
Macbeth (1998) (TV)
Scotland, Pa. (2001)
Maqbool (2003)
Halálos halál (2004)
Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (2005)
Macbeth (2005) (TV)
Referenced in
Ran (1985)
Stryker's War (1985)
The Player (1992)
Jing ke ci qin wang (1999)
Sennen joyu (2001)
Exhumed (2003) (V)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) (TV)
The Right Way (2004)
Featured in
A.K. (1985)
The 62nd Annual Academy Awards (1990) (TV)
Spoofed in
Hi no tori (1978) | |
| | THRONE OF BLOOD - AWARDS & NOMINATIONS | | | | | | | | Nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival
Consistently on IMDB Top 100. 96% votemeter on rottentomatoes.com
Akira Kurosawa remains to be hailed as one of the greatest and one of the most influential directors of all times.
Akira Kurosawa was given an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1990. |
| | THRONE OF BLOOD - QUOTES | | | | | | | | About the Film
"One of the most successful film adaptations of a Bard play." - Hollywood Reporter
"Throne of Blood spectacularly transforms the source play -- turning it into a terrifying journey through darkness, evil, and despair." - BBC
"Throne of Blood, Akira Kurosawa's searing adaptation of Macbeth, fluidly weaves Shakespeare's fluid lyricism with a distinct Japanese flavor." - eCinemaCenter.com
"Kurosawa's film ranks as a classic that holds up over the years for its tight construction and masterful cinematic technique" - ToxicUniverse.com |
| | THRONE OF BLOOD - TRIVIA | | | | | | | | Originally, Kurosawa was planning on building merely a facade castle for the film, but this proved to be an impractical step, prompting the building of full-on castle sections to use in shooting. These were built with the help of United States Marines who were based in the area.
Film based on Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Takeshi Katô (Guard killed by Washizu) was worried about the thrust of Toshirô Mifune's sword, so he placed a block of wood in his arm pit. Unfortunately Mifune's thrust split the block and wounded Katô. He carries a scar to this day.
The famous arrow scene near the end was in fact done with real arrows. That is, the arrows hitting the wooden planks were not done with special effects, but rather choreographed with archers. Mifune waves his arms to brush away the arrows sticking from the planks, indicating to them that he wanted to go in that particular direction. The real arrows were included to get Mifune's facial expressions of real-life fear, which is exceptionally hard to imitate. Of course, the arrows that hit the Mifune character were bamboo fakes.
Kurosawa was a notoriously lavish gourmet, and spent huge quantities of money on film sets providing an uneatably large quantity and quality of delicacies, especially meat, for the cast and crew.
On one occasion Kurosawa got to meet John Ford, a director commonly said to be the most influential to Kurosawa. And not knowing what to say Ford simply said, "You really like rain." Kurosawa responded "You've really been paying attention to my films"
Kurosawa was an admirer of Noh drama, and acknowledged the stylistic influence it had on Throne of Blood. This influence can be seen in many aspects of the film, from the staging, to the characterizations, to the editing and direction. |
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