Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo) (1957)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Akira Kubo

From: Toho (yes, they made more than Godzilla films)

Yep, a foreign film this time around, and one from the legendary Akira Kurosawa, who’d celebrate his 100th birthday this month if he was still alive. Now, believe it or not, before this flick, I had only seen one other film from him. It was in ’07, I think, when I rented Ran from the local Blockbuster. It’s not bad by any means but the praise for it as one of the best out of the entire 80’s… I did not think that way at all. I thought it was overlong myself, although it at least had a very nice commentary from a Kurosawa buff which explained how he filmed it and all that, and plus it had nice colors so it looked pretty cool.

Ran ended up being influenced heavily by King Lear; Kurosawa must have been a Shakespeare fan as Throne of Blood was a reworking of Macbeth (a play I never have red before, believe it or not, even though I know its plot; at least I read King Lear back in high school).

This was also the first time I’ve seen a Toshiro Mifune film* so that was a treat. As for recapping the plot, I won’t, as it follows the original Macbeth pretty closely.

• I do know that the characters he has played has inspired many people/characters in American film/culture, including Star Wars, and he was the first person George Lucas wanted to play Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Instead, I’ll mention that it was nicely filmed. It was in a foggy setting and you get a bunch of that, along with some pretty country scenery. “Atmospheric” doesn’t begin to describe it. I hear that the acting is in the Noh style, which is more theatrical and exaggerated, but I quickly got used to it. The costumes are rather interesting, but I’m sure pretty accurate to the medieval Japanese setting. At times frame wipes are used to transition between scenes; if you don’t know what that is, remember what was used in the original Star Wars to transition between scenes; obviously Lucas was inspired by that also.

So, it may not be for all modern audiences but I happened to enjoy it a lot as it’s great filmmaking. Not to sound like a film snob or anything, but I enjoyed how it was filmed and that sort of filmmaking is a big part of why this is praised by so many people. In fact, I may end up seeing Ran again, because this time I may appreciate it more. Most of his movies are playing on Tuesdays this month on Turner Classic Movies, which is how I was able to record and then watch this. I’ll record some more stuff this month and eventually I’ll get around to watching them, if not necessarily reviewing them here.

Oh, and Yamada played a great Lady Macbeth equivalent. She's monotone but it makes her chilling. Mifune was also great at being Macbeth himself. And the ending... I won't give it away but it's something you won't forget and it's all legit rather than anything that is staged or made safe. Toshiro is one brave man for being in that ending and being fine.

I'll be back in a week's time with at least one new review.