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Throne of Blood

Name: Throne of Blood
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 1957-01-15
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 7.919

★ 7,9 /10 (1,007 Votes)

1957 JA 108 min

Overview

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.

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Release date

15/01/1957

Votes

1,007

Popularity

4.8

Genres

Drama History

Status

Released

Original title

蜘蛛巣城

Language

Runtime

108 min

Revenue

$13,422

Toshirō Mifune

Taketoki Washizu

Isuzu Yamada

Lady Asaji Washizu

Takashi Shimura

Noriyasu Odagura

Akira Kubo

Yoshiteru Miki

Hiroshi Tachikawa

Kunimaru Tsuzuki

Minoru Chiaki

Yoshiaki Miki

Takamaru Sasaki

Kuniharu Tsuzuki

Gen Shimizu

Washizu samurai

Kokuten Kōdō

Military Commander

Kichijirō Ueda

Washizu's workman

Eiko Miyoshi

Old Woman at castle

Chieko Naniwa

Old Ghost Woman

Nakajirō Tomita

Military Commander #2

Yū Fujiki

Washizu samurai

Sachio Sakai

Washizu samurai

Shin Ōtomo

Washizu samurai

Yoshio Tsuchiya

Washizu samurai

Yoshio Inaba

Military Commander #3

No photo

Takeo Oikawa

Miki party member

No photo

Akira Tani

Washizu soldier

Ikio Sawamura

Washizu soldier

Yutaka Sada

Washizu samurai

Seijirô Onda

Miki party member #2

Shinpei Takagi

Commander

No photo

Masao Masuda

Commander

No photo

Mitsuo Asano

Washizu samurai

Shōbun Inoue

Servant

Asao Koike

Tsuzuki soldier

Takeshi Katō

Guard killed by Washizu

Hitoshi Takagi

Tsuzuki guard

No photo

Michiya Higuchi

Tsuki guard

Senkichi Ōmura

Washizu samurai

No photo

Gorô Sakurai

Servant

No photo

Shirō Tsuchiya

Commander

No photo

Takeo Matsushita

Commander

Jun Ōtomo

Commander

No photo

Kamayuki Tsubono

Servant

Fuminori Ōhashi

Samurai

Isao Kimura

Phantom samurai

Seiji Miyaguchi

Phantom samurai

Nobuo Nakamura

Phantom samurai

Original Soundtrack

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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, Toshiro Mifune) is a soldier serving the lord of Spiders-Web Castle. While riding through a forest with his comrade and childhood friend Miki (the Banquo character, Minoru Chiaki), they come upon a forest spirit that foretells an elevation in rank for the two, and eventually Washizu's reign over Spide…

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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 betrayal, power and insanity. Toshirô Mifune is magnificent as "Washizu" who after getting lost with his colleague (Minoru Chiaki) in the doleful "Spider's Web" forest is given a cryptic prophecy that one day he too is destined to rule the great "Spider's Web castle"... Initially reluctant to embark…

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⭐ 0,0 1971