Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo) [1957]

Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood is often considered as the greatest cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare. The master, of course, might have a point since his Ran, adapted from King Lear, is also equally renowned, if not more. However, there’s rarely any doubt in that Macbeth hasn’t received a more stunning and awe-inspiring cinematic rendition. Starring Kurosawa regular and inimitable actor Toshiro Mifune as the eponymous brave yet tragic hero, the movie is an epic Samurai take on the Shakespeare classic. Based during feudal war-torn Japan of medieval years – a time in which his Seven Samurai and Rashomon were also based – the movie is as much a visual spectacle as it is a deeply psychological one. The self-destructive ambitions of a samurai warrior, played with the kind of gleefully over-the-top, maniacal and utterly memorable swagger that few apart from Mifune could, has made for a grand tale filled with betrayal, treachery and murder. Right from the valorous warrior’s spectacular rise, till the bloody and deeply ironic denouement, the movie is a blast of high-octane force and a bleakly moody denunciation of man’s age-old lust for ‘power and glory’.





Director: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: Drama/Epic/War/Samurai Movie
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan