Throne Of Blood (Criterion Collection)

Toho Company (1957)

Drama | History

Japan | Japanese | Black & White | 01:50

#2354

8.0

56,039

NR (Not Rated)

715515155113

| 1 disc

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Cast View all

	Toshirô Mifune	Taketoki Washizu
	Isuzu Yamada	Lady Asaji Washizu
	Takashi Shimura	Noriyasu Odagura
	Akira Kubo	Yoshiteru Miki
	Hiroshi Tachikawa	Kunimaru Tsuzuki
	Minoru Chiaki	Yoshiaki Miki
	Takamaru Sasaki	Kuniharu Tsuzuki
	Gen Shimizu	Washizu samurai
	Kokuten Kodo	Military Commander
	Kichijiro Ueda	Washizu's workman
	Eiko Miyoshi	Old Woman at castle
	Chieko Naniwa	Old Ghost Woman
	Nakajiro Tomita	Second Military Commander
	Yu Fujiki	Washizu samurai
	Sachio Sakai	Washizu samurai
	Shin Otomo	Washizu samurai
	Yoshio Tsuchiya	Washizu samurai
	Yoshio Inaba	Third Military Commander
	Takeo Oikawa	Miki party member
	Akira Tani	Washizu soldier
	Ikio Sawamura	Washizu soldier
	Yutaka Sada	Washizu samurai
	Seijiro Onda	Second Miki party member
	Shinpei Takagi	Commander
	Masao Masuda	Commander

Crew View all

Director	Akira Kurosawa
Writer	Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, William Shakespeare
Producer	Akira Kurosawa, Sojiro Motoki
Musician	Masaru Satô
Photography	Asakazu Nakai

Personal

Quantity	1
Seen
Added Date	Dec 26, 2020 15:19:19
Modified Date	Jun 12, 2022 00:35:08

Edition details

Audio Tracks	SUB [English]
Distributor	Criterion Collection
Edition Release Date	Aug 25, 2015

Notes

Christmas 2020 gift from Beth

A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, Throne of Blood, directed by Akira Kurosawa, sets Shakespeare’s definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. As a hardened warrior who rises savagely to power, Toshiro Mifune gives a remarkable, animalistic performance, as does Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife. Throne of Blood fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES
New, restored 2K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary featuring Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
Documentary on the making of the film, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Two alternate subtitle translations, by Japanese film translator Linda Hoaglund and Kurosawa expert Donald Richie
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Stephen Prince and notes on the subtitling by Hoaglund and Richie

New cover by Bill McMullen

Links

IMDB

TheMovieDb.org