Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection
by Akira Kurosawa
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Akira Kubo, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura, Toshir? MifuneDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Brand: MIFUNE,TOSHIRO
Producer: Akira Kurosawa
Writer: Akira Kurosawa
Producer: S?jir? Motoki
Writer: Hideo Oguni
Writer: Ry?z? Kikushima
Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto
Writer: William Shakespeare
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: A broad stroke of the cinematic pen...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not the biggest fan of Asian cinema. I find it overly chaotic and confusing and at times very, very unrealistically cheesy. It can be so over the top that I just sit back and laugh before rolling my eyes and walking away; FAR AWAY. This problem is more prevalent in older Asian films, from the 50's and 60's. Modern Asian cinema (especially the 90's Gong Li driven miracles) are much more grounded in realism and much more breathtakingly phenomenal.
That said, when one really hits me, it hits me hard, and that is just what happened when I sat down to watch `Kumonosu-Jou'. I admit, the first few minutes had me wondering if I was going to get tired of it and turn it off, but my worries were soon subsided as the film took me deeper and deeper into the world of Akira Kurosawa.
It felt like home.
My friends (at least the cinemaphiles) all tell me that Kurosawa will help me appreciate Asian cinema, and to be honest one of my `other' favorite Asian films is his (`Tengoku to Jigoku') but I haven't really had the chance to see the one I really want to (`Ikiru'), I don't have much interest in `Ran', although they all tell me it is AMAZING, and I had `Kagemusha' on my DVR forever before I opted to delete it (it was LONG) to free up space for some films that peeked my interest a little more.
Oh yeah, and I find `Rashomon' to be one of the most overrated messes I've ever seen.
I'm really fickle sometimes.
That said, I really should give him more of my time because `Kumonosu-Jou' is actually one of my favorite films, period. I've seen it a handful of times over the past year and every time I see it my adoration grows. I love how you can take something as universally loved and as universally recognized as `Macbeth' and create something so unique and separate yet completely faithful and respectful of the source material. The initial concept is familiar, but the way that Kurosawa weaves this masterpiece is outstanding.
I don't want to really get into the film's plot too much, because really, the fun is watching it all unravel, but I will say that it revolves around two friends who find themselves adversaries when certain predictions of their future start to come true.
For me, the acting was truly outstanding, especially from Toshiro Mifune. His command of his character's struggle for power and consumption with greed is just magnificent to witness. I am one who found Isuzu Yamada brilliant as well. Sure some fault her, but I found her perfectly consumed by her character's evil obsessions.
And yet still, this film is all about Kurosawa. The way he dissects each scene, adding layers of gorgeous scenery to embellish the films central emotional core is just flawless, and that final scene (those arrows) is just beautifully composed despite the savage way it is rendered. He perfectly balances the ugly with the beautiful to create something that flourishes before our eyes.
So, in the end I have to say that this is beautiful. I really need to expound on my own intake of Asian art. It is all a matter of taste, and I know that my preference when it comes to foreign cinema lies in the European side of things (the jovial French and Italian or the gritty rawness of German and Swedish) but despite my afflictions with Asian `chaos' I have found delight in films I at first rendered a waste of time.
An open mind is wonderful thing.
Summary of Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection
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 theater 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.A champion of illumination and experimental shading, Kurosawa brings his unerring eye for indelible images to Shakespeare in this 1957 adaptation of Macbeth. By changing the locale from Birnam Wood to 16th-century Japan, Kurosawa makes an oddball argument for the trans-historicity of Shakespeare's narrative; and indeed, stripped to the bare mechanics of the plot, the tale of cutthroat ambition rewarded (and thwarted) feels infinitely adaptable. What's lost in the translation, of course, is the force and beauty of the language--much of the script of Throne of Blood is maddeningly repetitive or superfluous--but striking visual images (including the surreal Cobweb Forest and some extremely artful gore) replace the sublime poetry. Toshiro Mifune is theatrically intense as Washizu, the samurai fated to betray his friend and master in exchange for the prestige of nobility; he portrays the ill-fated warrior with a passion bordering on violence, and a barely concealed conviviality. Somewhat less successful is Isuzu Yamada as Washizu's scheming wife; her poise and creepy impassivity, chilling at first, soon grows tedious. Kurosawa himself is the star of the show, though, and his masterful use of black-and-white contrast-- not to mention his steady, dramatic hand with a battle scene--keeps the proceedings thrilling. A must-see for fans of Japanese cinema, as well as all you devotees of samurai weapons and armor. --Miles Bethany
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