Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood is a tradegy based on the life of a lord named Taketoki Washizu, a valiant warrior whose life is transformed by an encounter with a ghostly female spirit. The spirit offers several predictions, stating that Washizu will rise to power over the current warlord. When these predictions begin to unfold, he and his ambitious wife decide to ensure his ascendancy to power by murdering the current ruler. As with Macbeth, Washizu achieves his goal, but his guilt and the suspicions of others soon bring about his downfall.

The supporting performances were outstanding, particularly Isuzu Yamada's creepily unemotional take on Lady Macbeth's face, her face was extremely solid and motionless. Isuzu Yamada's stance and undeniable presence in this film was incredibly noticeable, in every scene and shot she delivered the role she was suppose to play . There was a scene in this film that i really loved her in, when she was rambling her hands together like she was supposedly washing her hands in a waterless bowl. My point is, the emotion and facial expression she portrayed in this film was exciting because that's the first time she probably showed emotion in this film, and the look of anguish, pain, hurt, troubled, and isolation, was well played out .

While Mifune proves consistently gripping in the sheer intensity of his performance, with undeniable strong,expressionless faces. For example, i feel there were three scenes in this film that showed Mifune's greatest acting skills, the first has to be when he kills the king then runs back to his wife, then he had the most unbelievable, undeniable, troubled, and shocking look like i can't believe i just killed the king while holding the weapon (sword), and his hand buried in a pool of blood. Another has to be when the maid stops him in the middle of the room from seeing his wife, and there was so much empty space in the room, and that scene represents the feeling of loneliness and isolation he was feeling. Also during the conclusion, in which Washizu makes a memorable final stand against an advancing army, he was shot by his own archers and stumbles forward like a porcupine before being shot in the neck. He slowly descends the stairs and dies, collapsing dramatically on the ground which was filled with clouds of fog.

Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood strips away Macbeth's minor characters and long soliloquies, turns the witch scenes into a strange supernatural encounter, and transforms the landscape into a misty visage. Kurosawa masterfully employs style and composition to create a closed world in which the film's tragic outcome seems pre-ordained. Such visual motifs as fog, wind, and rain, complimented or matched with the austere interior of Washizu's castle, create an eerie, foreboding feel, while Kurosawa's use of stark blacks and whites, coupled with his persistent use of hard edits, seem to place the characters in stylistic confinement that moved the plot along. Kurosawa uses repetition, such as the image of Washizu's emerging from the fog, to suggest the futility of the characters' actions.

Impressive in every regard, Throne of Blood seems secure in the pantheon of superior film adaptations of William Shakespeare. Throne of Blood is a visually brilliant, an emotionally powerful masterpiece from one of the true masters of cinema (Akira Kurosawa).