Throne Of Blood

Trailer (Flash Video 03:43) and Review of Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo, 1957, directed by Akira Kurosawa) at Nippon Cinema. "...In 1956, director Akira Kurosawa started work on his own Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s 'Macbeth'. In keeping with the original stage feel of the play, Kurosawa presented it with elements of traditional Noh musical stage dramas—complete with characters whose faces closely resemble Noh masks—while still basically sticking to his film roots and accomplishing special effects that could never be pulled off in a stage production. Those familiar with Macbeth will easily recognize the parallels between stories, with the major tweaks coming simply to convert a story about the Scottish monarchy to one set in Japan’s Warring States Period. In the end you basically have an adaptation of one of the best plays in history directed by one of the greatest filmmakers in history. Sounds pretty good, right? Correct."