Throne of Blood 4K 1957 Ultra HD 2160p

The Japanese worldview is sometimes surprisingly accurate in sensing the drama of a foreign culture, in this case Western culture, when it adapts classic works. Akira Kurosawa, who had already had success with his adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot, went even further: his Throne in Blood is the most exotic Macbeth yet, with Toshiro Mifune as the bloodthirsty general who rises to power in the Castle of the Spider's Web. The opulent decorations of European palaces have been replaced by ascetic one-story interiors - otherwise, we feel the same bare nerve of a Shakespearean tragedy: a vassal kills his suzerain after successful incitement by his wife.


Blinded by vague ambitions, Washizu is Japan's Macbeth, violating the sanctity of feudal-vassal relations - nothing could be worse for a samurai with his strict code of honor. But the main thing here is the way Kurosawa shifts the accents: the victory of passions over samurai ritual has to be paid for in a cruel way - the Japanese Macbeth is stopped not by Macduff (he doesn't even have his own version here), but by his own servants - warriors who bombard the master, almost turning the film's mise-en-scene into an iconography of St. Sebastian's torments.

Magical symbolism is deep and unfamiliar here (instead of three witches - a mysterious spirit), and in general - more pessimistic view of Kurosawa on human nature (here the couple quite consciously behaves towards the abyss). “Throne in Blood” - a surprisingly subtle, poetic and beautiful transposition of the tragedy, where the color of the samurai era is combined with the dark pathos of the English bard.

User Review

Since Macbeth is definitely my favorite Shakespearean character (if not my favorite play, which I may still be unsure of), it was very curious to see the interpretation of his story in a Japanese setting.

While the movie and play's storylines are generally the same, the accents are set up a bit differently. Washizu Taketoki has undoubtedly always seen himself as the lord of the castle; the witch does not seduce him, she only gives him confidence that this is not an empty dream. And what stands in the way of this dream is not the fear of murder, not moral torment, but the demands of samurai honor. Actually, it is the cardinal difference in the basic moral coordinates that explains the difference between A Throne in Blood and Macbeth: instead of Christianity, there is bushido, which means that Washizu is first and foremost a traitor, tearing up feudal-vassal relations. Characteristically, while Macbeth is the first to suggest that Banquo stick with him, and the latter agrees only if it is not at the expense of virtue, Miki himself gives Washizu his support, and the question of whether he understands the background of the previous suzerain's death is rather unclear. But Washizu betrays him, thus breaking his promise and going against bushido again, this time as a lord. The ending of the movie is very characteristic - the scene most altered from Shakespeare's play. Instead of falling in a fair fight (in a Western context it would be a battle between Good and Evil, but for a samurai to die in battle is a quite honorable fate), he is killed by his own servants because he has given them his false confidence and deprived them of their loyalty to the suzerain, setting a bad example.

'Throne in Blood' is filmed monumentally, as is typical of Kurosawa. There is rather little dialog, but very long expositions preceding almost every scene - the gathering of the army, the race through the forest, and so on. All this gives the movie an epic scope: the armies are numerous, the castle walls are large, the trees in the forest reach to the very heavens.... In addition, this footage is simply beautiful.

The acting is theatrical, and more in the style of traditional Japanese theater. However, I can't say that it spoils the movie. Kurosawa does not rely on realism, but on expressiveness. Tensely frozen face of Toshiro Mifune tells us that every second he is ready to grab his sword, and the transitions from rage to horror, perhaps, correspond to the tragic style of the movie.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (68.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Info Audio

#Japanese: FLAC 1.0
#English: FLAC 2.0 (Commentary by Japanese Film Expert Michael Jeck)

Info Subtitles