Hands down the best Shakespeare adaptation in cinema history (for us at VTIFF, anyway; sorry, Olivier). A vivid, visceral take on Macbeth, Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood sets Shakespeare’s immortal tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. As a hardened warrior who rises savagely to power, Toshiro Mifune gives a remarkable, animalistic performance, as does Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife. Throne of Blood fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh theater and still harnesses the spirit of the Bard’s epic tragedy.
As summarized by The Guardian, “Little remains of Shakespeare’s script, but in Akira Kurosawa’s masterly interpretation of Macbeth the poetry is all visual… Kurosawa pares the tragedy down to its essentials and turns it into a thrilling cinematic experience.”
