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Comment
07/01/08
Throne of Blood (1957)
97 %
Reviews Counted: 33 Fresh: 32 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.6/10
Consensus:
A career high point for Akira Kurosawa -- and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Synopsis: Akira Kurosawa's stunning reconception of Shakespeare's MACBETH is a dark samurai drama, set in feudal Japan. As the film begins, two soldiers--Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki)--find themselves lost in a dense forest during a powerful thunderstorm. Seemingly unable to... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Screenwriter: Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Story: William Shakespeare
Screenwriter: Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa
Story: William Shakespeare
Reviews
Top Critic
With its all-pervading sense of doom, this is a serious contender for the finest celluloid Shakespeare of them all.
12/30/06
Top Critic
It's visually ravishing, as you would expect, employing compositional tableaux from the Noh drama, high contrast photography, and extraordinary images of rain, galloping horses, the birds fleeing from the forest.
02/09/06
Top Critic
Throne of Blood spectacularly transforms the source play -- turning it into a terrifying journey through darkness, evil, and despair.
01/08/02
Top CriticClick to read the article
01/06/02
Top Critic
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.
07/01/08
One of Kurosawa's best and arguably the best Shakespeare ever filmed.
05/30/08
In fact, in the scene where Lady Asaji leaves a room and disappears into the darkness to get sake to make the guards drunk, the ominous rustling of her silk gown is as chilling as Lady Macbeth's lines.
10/06/07
Transplanted to medieval Japan, Kurosawa's brutal film is one of the best Shakesperean adaptations on screen, with a tour de force performance from Toshiro Mifune; it makes a fascinating double bill with the masterful Ran
01/04/07
Kurosawa's film ranks as a classic that holds up over the years for its tight construction and masterful cinematic technique
07/31/03
Top CriticRelated Forums
THRONE OF BLOOD - Kurosawa classic may lull some to sleep before the best part!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
THRONE OF BLOOD - Kurosawa classic may lull some to sleep before the best part!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
THRONE OF BLOOD - Kurosawa classic may lull some to sleep before the best part!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
THRONE OF BLOOD - Kurosawa classic may lull some to sleep before the best part!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 6/26/05
News
Brush Up On Your Shakespeare With Our List Of The Bard's Best Films
posted by Tim Ryan July 21, 2008
Friends, readers, Tomato-fans, lend me your ears. Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, we at RT humbly present to...
posted by Tim Ryan July 21, 2008
Friends, readers, Tomato-fans, lend me your ears. Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, we at RT humbly present to...
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• Throne of Blood at Rotten Tomatoes
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