Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.
By 1957, director Akira Kurosawa already had films like Seven Samurai and Ikiru behind him,
but still had Yojimbo and High and Low to come.
And there’s no higher praise for Throne of Blood, which you can stream on BFI player,
than to say that it sits comfortably in such company.
Kurosawa had originally planned his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, relocated to Feudal Japan,
some years earlier but wanted to avoid comparison with Orson Welles’ 1948 film,
and the delay may have helped.
In the interim he had become internationally successful, able to command far larger budgets, and had amassed about him a formidable team,
onscreen and off, who are at the top of their game here.
It is perhaps the most stylised of Kurosawa’s films, opening with a chorus setting the scene,
nodding to the story’s theatrical antecedents and to the inspiration of Japanese Noh theatre which underpins the movie’s style.
Weather always plays a significant role in Kurosawa films
and here the mist itself seems to waft us back in time to meet Toshiro Mifune’s MacBeth substitute Washizu and his friend Miki,
played by Kurosawa regular Minoru Chiaki, #
this is a film of contrasts, veering from kinetic pace to shocking stillness.
The extraordinary performance of Isuzu Yamada as Lady Washizu was again inspired by Noh theatre,
with Kurosawa encouraging her to emulate the masks worn by Noh performers,
while her encroaching insanity becomes almost a dance.
The music too, by Kurosawa’s regular composer Masaru Sato, reflects Noh,
a sparse score with flute and percussion dominating.
There’s contrast in the characters too,
Washizu is all action and energy,
Mifune at his full-blooded best,
yet he is passive when it comes to seizing power,
needing to be talked around by his wife,
who is almost static and yet utterly driven.
From its brilliant orchestration of action,
to its centred compositions, this is classic Kurosawa,
but it’s also pure Shakespeare.
The key scenes are all here but, as with all the best adaptations, it’s more to do with fidelity to the spirit of the story.
It’s not just that feudal Japan with its obsession with loyalty and internecine fighting is an ideal setting for Shakespearean tragedy,
it’s the Kurosawa gets the psychology behind it.
This is one of if not the greatest Shakespeare adaptation on film,
but, what I think is often ignored about Throne of Blood, is that it is also a great gothic horror film.
With its floating torches, forest filled with piles of bones, one of cinema’s eeriest witches,
and its obsession with fate.
More than that it creates an atmosphere of tension and mania, most horrors can only envy.
And all that is before we reach one of the most celebrated and shocking final scenes of all time,
which we can’t really show cos this is a review, but damn! If you haven’t seen it, watch it.
Kurosawa made three Shakespeare adaptations, each very individual, making a fascinating trilogy that we might do a video about one of these days
– kind of off-brand for us but when something is this good, you want to talk about it.
Thanks for watching. From word for word takes like Kenneth Brannagh’s Hamlet to Disney’s the Lion King,
what are your favourite cinematic takes on Shakespeare? Lt us know in the comments below.