"Throne Of Blood" (1957)

(Originally released as Kumonosu jo)

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura

First, the Lowdown: It's Macbeth in feudal Japan.

"Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none..."

I'm really racking up the Kurosawa flicks this month. First Rashomon, now this. (My next review is going to be of The 400 Blows, so brace yourself.) Not to worry, pretty soon I'll out of this "required foreign film viewing" kick and get back to the goofy stuff that I'm famous for.

Macbeth is my favorite tragedy by Shakespeare. I was introduced to it in fourth grade and have always loved it. A drama that is both creepy and mystical, Macbeth has such a pall of despair around it that many in theatre speak of it in hushed tones. (If someone could explain to me the superstition that surrounds this play, I'd appreciate it.)

After being introduced to the ancient Greek tragedies by Sophocles later in high school did I notice quite a few parallels between Macbeth and the tale of Oedipus. But Macbeth embraces his destiny (a little TOO much) while Oedipus flees his. In both tales, each man's life spirals ever downward to a fateful end like water swirling in a drain.

The Japanese are pretty big on dramatic tragedy, so I'm not surprised that Macbeth would translate so well to their ancient Feudal history. (Kurosawa would visit Shakespeare again almost 30 years later with Ran.) In fact I sometimes wonder how well Hamlet or Richard III would interpret. (Actually, I'd love to see Richard III done as a Tokugawa-era drama.)

Kurosawa is in pretty good form in this movie. Toshiro Mifune (Kurosawa's Al Pacino) is wearing his "stern samurai" hat this time (as opposed to the "goofy samurai" he dons in other films) looking like he had stepped out of an ancient portrait of Miyamoto Musashi. For the most part, "Throne of Blood" is visually compelling.

My major problem with the movie is that it starts out and progresses with all the pacing of a typical Kurosawa epic, but in the last third everything comes to a quick resolution. Too quick for my taste. It felt as if the director were under too tight of a deadline to produce an end-product. I wonder if another 30 minutes would've helped.

Line of the movie: "Children kill their parents and parents their children in order to get ahead." Lady Asaji, understated but manipulative.

Four stars. Exact change only.