Throne of Blood Film Still

Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa

 
Throne of Blood Criterion DVD

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

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  • Japan
  • 1957
  • 109 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.33:1
  • Japanese

SYNOPSIS: One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood reimagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall. With Throne of Blood, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theater to make a Macbeth that is all his own—a classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Taketoki WashizuToshiro Mifune
AsajiIsuzu Yamada
Yoshiaki MikiMinoru Chiaki
YoshiteruAkira Kubo
Kuniharu Tsuzuki Takamaru Sasaki
KunimaruYoichi Tachikawa
Noriyasu OdaguraTakashi Shimura
WitchChieko Naniwa

Credits

DirectorAkira Kurosawa
ProducerShojiro Motoki
ScreenplayShinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni, Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima
CinematographyAsakazu Nikai
Art directionYoshiro Muraki and Kohei Ezaki
SoundFumio Yanoguchi
MusicMasaru Sato

Disc Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary by Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New essay by Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa)
  • Two alternative subtitle translations: a new version from renowned Japanese-film translator Linda Hoaglund, and Kurosawa expert Donald Richie
  • Notes on subtitling by Linda Hoaglund and Donald Richie
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Throne of Blood: Shakespeare Transposed

By Stephen PrinceMay 26, 2003

Critics commonly describe Throne of Blood as Kurosawa’s adaptation of Macbeth. While this description is certainly not untrue, it hardly begins to suggest Read more »

Throne of Blood

By Donald RichieDecember 02, 1991

Director Akira Kurosawa had wanted to make Throne of Blood for some time. “After finishing Rashomon [in 1950] I wanted to do something with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but just about Read more »