Throne of Blood

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Cast

Toshirō Mifune

as Taketoki Washizu

Isuzu Yamada

as Lady Asaji Washizu

Takashi Shimura

as Noriyasu Odagura

Akira Kubo

as Yoshiteru Miki

Hiroshi Tachikawa

as Kunimaru Tsuzuki

Minoru Chiaki

as Yoshiaki Miki

Takamaru Sasaki

as Kuniharu Tsuzuki

Gen Shimizu

as Washizu samurai

Kokuten Kōdō

as Military Commander

Kichijirō Ueda

as Washizu's workman

Reviews

CRCulver

One of a number of films that Akira Kurosawa made in the 1950s and which have become classics, <i>Throne of Blood</i> is the director's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in feudal Japan but showing that lust for power is a perennial feature of human society. Washizu (the Macbeth character, To...

CinemaSerf

I think that this is a superb tragi-adventure story that stands out well amongst the numerous loose adaptations of Shakespeare that have been made over the years. Kurosawa takes the Scottish play and gives it the "Noh" treatment that delivers an enigmatic and tautly directed rendition of a story of ...

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