Throne of Blood 4K 1957

Throne of Blood' is an interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, transposed to medieval Japan. One of the vassals (I will give Kurosaw's Macbeth in quotes) kills his suzerain because of his wife's incitement. By taking the path of evil both, wife and husband, take the path of doom. It is not so important that Macbeth is haunted by failures as much as that he suffers mental decay, he is corrupted by a sense of impunity, he loses his vigilance and both figures of evil go mad. The plot is built on the witch's predictions, which come true literally, but not as the protagonist expects. Interesting mysticism keeps the Shakespeare thing going (you can study life mysticism from it). And the addition of mysticism from Kurosawa within the coloring of Japanese (non-European) culture begins to sound not only special, but more powerful.

The matter does not end with the transfer under the coloring. There is a significant difference between Shakespeare's Macbeth and Kurosawa's 'Macbeth'. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist is killed by a son avenging his murdered father. Shakespeare gives two conventional witches' predictions, which, being unrealizable, nevertheless come true. The first is 'you will lose when the forest reaches the castle'. The second is “you'll be killed by a man not born a woman. And as the plot progresses, it turns out that the avenging son was not born, but came into the world by Caesarean section.

Kurosawa gives the forest, but resolves the death of 'Macbeth' in a completely different way - 'Macbeth' is killed by the prediction itself. Because of the strange, potentially 'unenforceable' orders, 'Macbeth' decides that he is invincible. He and his army wait for the siege. He announces to the army that he has become the head of the country thanks to the witch's divination (there were still prior predictions that secured the hero's power). And she also gave another, potentially 'unrealizable' prediction about the coming forest. The previous predictions came true, this one will come true too - and hence Macbeth is invincible.

Kurosawa chooses more to emphasize the danger to man of contact with evil. There is almost no intrigue here. The movie is for those who know and appreciate Shakespeare's Macbeth, as well as those who love and know how to interpret meanings.