is a 1957 Japanese epic jidaigeki film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of English dramatist William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (1606) from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in the lead roles, modelled on the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Like the play, the film tells the story of a warrior who assassinates his sovereign at the urging of his ambitious wife. Kurosawa was a fan of the play and intended to make his own adaptation for several years, delaying it after learning of Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948). Among his changes was the ending, which required archers to shoot arrows around Mifune. The film was shot around Mount Fuji and Izu Peninsula. With a budget of <!-- or --> (), the film was one of the most expensive films ever made in Japan at the time of its release.
Release
The film was released theatrically in Japan on January 15, 1957, by Toho, and grossed , making it the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 1957, after Shintoho's Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War, which grossed ¥542.91 million. In the United States, the film was distributed by Brandon Films with English subtitles at 105 minutes and opened on November 22, 1961.
Throne of Blood was the first film to be screened at the 1st BFI London Film Festival on October 16, 1957. After the screening, Akira Kurosawa attended a party at film critic Dilys Powell's house, and had dinner with actor Laurence Olivier, and actress Vivien Leigh who were planning on playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in a film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth that never materialized. Olivier told Kurosawa that he had enjoyed watching the film and was impressed by the scene in which Toshiro Mifune's Macbeth is shot by arrows. Isuzu Yamada's acting impressed Leigh, and she asked why Yamada made such little movement when she was mad.
In 1991, the film was released in the United States on LaserDisc by The Criterion Collection, and on VHS by Media Home Entertainment. Toho released the film on DVD in Japan in 2002 and on Blu-ray in 2010. In 2013, Madman Entertainment distributed the film on DVD in Region 4. In Region A, The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray in 2014, having released the film on DVD 10 years earlier.
In 2018, the film was screened by the National Film Archive of Japan at the Essential 2018 National Film Archive Opening Cinema Memorial in Kyōbashi, Tokyo, along with 9 other Japanese films. In 2021, the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute screened a 4K remaster of the film at the 12th 10am Film Festival.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 47 reviews, with an average score of 8.80/10. The site's consensus states: "A career high point for Akira Kurosawa – and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play."
When it was released in the United States in 1961, the Time review praised Kurosawa and the film as "a visual descent into the hell of greed and superstition".
Bosley Crowther from The New York Times called the idea of Shakespeare in Japanese "amusing", and complimented the cinematography. Most critics stated it was the visuals that filled the gap left by the removal of Shakespeare's poetry.
U.K. directors Geoffrey Reeve and Peter Brook considered the film to be a masterpiece, but denied it was a Shakespeare film because of the language. Film historian Donald Richie praised the film as "a marvel because it is made of so little: fog, wind, trees, mist". Film critic Stephen Prince compared its minimalist landscapes to the painting technique sumi-e.
David Parkinson of Empire magazine rated it 5 out of 5, calling it "highly cinematic" and "a film studded with magnificent set-pieces".
The film has received praise from literary critics despite the many liberties it takes with the original play. The American literary critic Harold Bloom judged it "the most successful film version of Macbeth". Sylvan Barnet writes it captured Macbeth as a strong warrior, and that "Without worrying about fidelity to the original," Throne of Blood is "much more satisfactory" than most Shakespeare films. Film historian David A. Conrad wrote that just as Shakespeare's play commented on "questions of legitimacy, masculinity, and civil war" that resonated in early 17th-century England, Kurosawa's movie engages with contemporary Japanese debates about the "spiderless cobweb" of postwar bureaucracy and industry. In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film four stars, calling it a "graphic, powerful adaptation".
Accolades
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|-
! scope="col"| Award
! scope="col"| Category
! scope="col"| Recipient(s)
! scope="col"| Result
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|
|-
| Venice Film Festival
| Golden Lion
| Akira Kurosawa
|
|
|-
| scope="row" rowspan=2| Kinema Junpo Awards
| Best 10 Japanese Films
|
|
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| Best Actress
| Isuzu Yamada
|
|-
| scope="row" rowspan=2| Mainichi Film Awards
| Best Actor
| Toshiro Mifune
|
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| Best Art Direction
| Yoshirō Muraki
|
|-
| scope="row" rowspan=2| Blue Ribbon Awards
| Best 10 Japanese Films
|
|
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| Technology Award
| Yoshirō Muraki
|
|-
|Visual Technology Awards
|Art
|Yoshirō Muraki
|
|
|}
Legacy
Akira Kurosawa's 1960 film The Bad Sleep Well, was heavily influenced by William Shakespeare's Hamlet, as well as The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Roman Polanski's 1971 film version of Macbeth has similarities to Throne of Blood, in shots of characters on twisted roads, set design, and music to identify locations and psychological conditions. Toshiro Mifune's death scene was the source of inspiration for Piper Laurie's death scene in the 1976 film Carrie, in which knives are thrown at her, in this case by character Carrie White using her psychic powers. In 1985, Kurosawa returned to adapting Shakespeare, choosing the play King Lear for his final epic film Ran, and again moving the setting to feudal Japan.
Throne of Blood is referenced in the anime film Millennium Actress (2001) in the form of the Forest Spirit/Witch. It was adapted for the stage by director Ping Chong, premiering at the 2010 Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon.
See also
- The Bad Sleep Well
- List of Japanese films of 1957
- List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations
- Ran
References
Bibliography
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External links
- Throne of Blood at the official Japanese-language Toho website (archived)
- The Throne of Blood at the official English-language Toho website (archived)
- Throne of Blood at the Criterion Collection
- Throne of Blood: Shakespeare Transposed an essay by Stephen Prince at the Criterion Collection
- Program notes from the 1957 San Francisco International Film Festival
- Throne of Blood at the Japanese Movie Database