Macbeth with samurai

You may have noticed that in my previous reviews for a Kurosawa film I've compared his films favorably to the films that he was to later influence. This is because Akira Kurosawa is a director who has influenced a large portion of the films you may have seen, including A Fistful Of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars and even The Usual Suspects. The chances are that whatever your film taste, and whatever you favorite films are that somewhere along the way you'll need to give Kurosawa credit for at least one of your top 20. Yet with this film it's different. Throne Of Blood has certainly had an influence on cinema, but it's been a more subtle influence and the chances are that the films themselves would still have existed in some form without Kurosawa's influence. The reason is that Throne Of Blood represents Kurosawa's turn to be influenced by a famous story, in this case William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

It was for this very reason that I decided to buy Throne Of Blood when I was trying to decide on which Kurosawa film to see next. You see, I hated Shakespeare when I was in high school, but this was mainly because I felt I was supposed to hate his work. Now I'm an adult, and a lack of attention in high school has meant that I can no longer remember very much from Shakespeare's plays. Yet one of the things I remember from Macbeth was that it was a huge story, full of betrayal, revenge and murder. Trying to imagine doing these same themes, only with my favorite director behind the camera, and samurai replacing English men seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.

Now I know that going in with the expectations that it couldn't possibly go wrong is usually a recipe for disaster, but Throne Of Blood has mercifully exceeded my expectations. Set in 16th century feudal Japan it tells the story of 2 Samurai Warriors who are given an audience with the lord. However on their way to see him they get lost in the woods when a dense, supernatural fog envelops them. In the midst of this fog they find a malevolent spirit that foretells their future for them. It tells that the first man Taektoki Wahsizu will take up the throne, but that he will be superseded by the son of the second man Miki. Taektoki is initially disgusted at the idea and tries to kill the spirit, but when he gets home and tells his wife the tale, her own ambitions cause her to push him into the act of assassinating the Lord. This begins an epic tale of Betrayal, murder and revenge that can only end in one way.

With Throne Of Blood Kurosawa has proven himself to be as adept at adapting classic literature as he is at producing original work worthy of being adapted. He has managed to remain very faithful to the source material (from what I can remember of course) but has updated it just enough that it fits in with the new setting. The most obvious example is found in the character of Lady Asaji Washizu. Isuzu Yamada (Yojimbo) perfectly embodies the ambitious lady Macbeth character, but still remembers that she is playing a different character. She portrays the elements of frustration that the character feels toward her womanhood, but does it in a more subtle way, using a tone of voice that would be deemed suitable for a Japanese wife of the times.

Though she's been totally overshadowed by an outstanding performance by Akira Kurosawa mainstay, Toshiro Mifune. I've always been very impressed with Mifune, and from the films I've seen so far he's become one of my favorite actors. Yet he has somehow exceeded himself in Throne Of Blood and made me respect him even more. In the past I've seen Mifune succeed in a variety of different roles including Comic (Yojimbo), honorable (The Hidden Fortress) and dangerous (Rashomon), yet what was most impressive was that he always seemed to bring a little of each style to the roles he played. In Throne Of Blood he really epitomizes the style that he's used throughout his career. He imbues Taektoki with a deep sense of honour, that brings guilt over his actions. Yet Mifune's natural screen presence gives the character a real edge. Though there's not many comic moments in Throne Of Blood, when they are used they fit perfectly into the narrative instead of feeling like comic relief. The moment most evident is when the spirit appears to Taektoki at a dinner, and Mifune uses his exaggerated mannerisms to convince the audience that the character is being driven insane with fear.

That's the tone set by this film though. It's a film that uses many of Kurosawa's trademarks but does them in a much more subtle, impressive way. For example the cinematography is more down to earth, and harder to spot. Yet look hard enough and it's evident that careful thought went into this aspect of the film. Kurosawa uses a steady cam for many of the films frames, and this gives the proceedings a much more theatrical feel. Yet for the real flash you need to look beyond the surface, and into the little background details. Throughout the film Kurosawa places something to portray circular movement, such as a horse running around in circles when Taektoki and Asaji are talking, or Taektoki's constant habit of walking in circles. This highlights that Shakespeare's circular structure is unchanged. That no matter what Taektoki does, his fate is sealed.

Though it was Kurosawa's atmospheric use of sound that I found to be most effective. He only uses background music in a select few scenes, but makes some of the best use of background noise I have ever seen. Some scenes use natural sounds, such as the wind, to produce a believable world brimming with political upheaval. Yet Kurosawa will suddenly introduce unnatural sounds, such as the horrible laugh of the spirit, that tears the films world upside down and goes from tense to just plain scary.

Before Throne Of Blood I had seen 4 Kurosawa films, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon and The Hidden Fortress and I've described them all as masterpieces. Yet Throne Of Blood has proven to be the best Kurosawa film I've seen yet. It's gritty, tense and one the most well structured films that I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. I'm afraid that means I'm going to have to use the M word again though.
Masterpiece!


The rest is a review of the UK Region 2 BFI DVD

The Disk

Extras
You know I really am starting to come under the impression that the BFI are too lazy about producing their DVDs. The disk contains the biographies on Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune that were found on both The Hidden Fortress and Rashomon DVDs. That's 3 disks that I've brought now and all 3 of them have had this same extra. Then it has the same Seven Samurai trailer from the Rashomon disk, and concluding with a few web links. So far I've brought only 1 Kurosawa DVD that was worth the DVD purchase and that was The Hidden Fortress. Of course the reason is that the other disks I've got came out before their Criterion counterparts, whereas Hidden Fortress was after the Criterion and so the BFI used that job. They don't cleanup the films, and they don't hunt out special features, they simply use the resources that others have made available. If I was comfortable that importing would go well, I'd go criterion but until I decide to pick up an extremely cheap R1 disk in way of a test then I'm stuck with BFI. It's just so unfair!

How does the DVD look?
It's an old film and so only available in the standard academy ratio (1:33:1), or full screen for those who don't speak all of this technical mumbo jumbo. However even though it's not a wide-screen film, the picture quality looks amazing. The film has been granted an incredibly sharp picture that perfectly captures Kurosawa's pallette of Grey shades.

How does the DVD sound?
Again it's an old film, so it only comes available in Mono sound. The difference is that unlike aspect ratio's, re encoding the sound to 5.1 would have been forgivable. Still the film sounds very clear, with the exception of a few scenes where interference causes a loud hissing sound.

Overall
The best Kurosawa film that I've seen yet, as well as one of the greatest films ever made. Though it's a shame that the BFI have messed up on the DVD again.

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