Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo) November 3, 2010

Part of the BAMcinématek series Kurosawa's Samurai

(1957) 100min

With Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki

"Akira Kurosawa's remarkable 1957 restaging of Macbeth in samurai and expressionist terms is unquestionably one of his finest works—charged with energy, imagination, and, in keeping with the subject, sheer horror." —Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Throne of Blood is Kurosawa’s version of Macbeth, with the action transplanted to feudal Japan. Mifune plays the title role to perfection, down to his cowardly defeat, and allows Isuzu Yamada to steal the show as cinema’s most memorable Lady Macbeth. Kurosawa’s Noh-influenced staging and otherworldly portents of doom are matched by his elegant adaptation, which focuses less on language than on the motives behind the bloodshed.

Official Website: http://bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2692