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Shakespeare’s Throne:

A DVD Review of Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood: The Criterion Collection

Shakespeare film adaptations are endless. They form their own genre. Books and dissertations are written about them and film classes use them for their subject. Shakespeare’s most famous work, Hamlet, has been made and remade by the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier, Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, and Campbell Scott. While the films more faithful to Shakespeare’s source material prove to be quite powerful, it is the most creative interpretations that seem to breathe more life into the genre. Hamlet aside, some of the most creative Shakespeare adaptations branch off of Macbeth.

Long before Billy Morrissette’s black comedy Scotland, PA, a hilarious transposition of staging Macbeth in a 1975 burger joint, but after Orson Welles’s infamous production of Voodoo Macbeth came Akira Kurosawa’s (The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon) 1957 film Throne of Blood. However, instead of staging the film in the original setting of Scotland, Kurosawa brings the adaptation to his native Japan. Like the Bard’s play, Kurosawa’s film follows a warrior’s rise to power and climatic fall (which is staged in one of the most underrated film sequences in history).

A brief recap of the plot follows the Macbeth figure, Washizu (Kurosawa regular Toshiro Milfune) is returning from battle with his colleague, Miki (the Banquo character), when they become lost in the forest during a storm. The two soldiers encounter a hovel which is inhabited by a witch. The witch prophesizes that both soldiers will receive a promotion when they return to their king but Washizu will later become king. They return home and are both promoted.

Following his promotion, Washizu returns home to his wife, Asaji. Washizu informs her of the prophecy and she urges him to be wary of Miki who may tell the king (which would obviously result in the murder of Washizu). Asaji urges Washizu that the only way to keep his life and get what is rightfully his is to kill the king and claim the throne as his own.

While Kurosawa uses Macbeth as his starting point, Throne of Blood is steeped in Japanese culture. Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa, describes this in his accompanying essay to the Criterion Collection DVD. Prince writes that “Kurosawa’s film is a brilliant synthesis of diverse cultural, aesthetic, and historical sources, only one skein of which derives from Shakespeare.” This is incredibly true of the film. Upon first viewing, most viewers begin to indulge in the top layer of the film, the Shakespeare of it. However, after reading Prince’s essay, listening to Criterion’s commentary by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck, and watching the film a second time, one starts to uncover multiple underlying layers to the film, many of which revolve around Japanese culture.

Criterion, as usual, supplies Kurosawa’s film with an impeccable high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound. The first time I saw this film was in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Theatre. The film I viewed was a 35mm print that was marred with scratches and grain. I had feared that when Criterion announced the production of Throne of Blood that the transfer would be similar. However, like their restoration treatment of Godard’s Contempt, Criterion’s Throne of Blood proves to be an improvement over many of the aging 35mm prints that are available. The audio, a mono track, proves to be quite effective bringing both the simple haunting score, overwhelming sound effects, and dialogue to a well produced mix.

Transfers and extras aside, Criterion also supplies two subtitle tracks to the film, both of which are produced by world-renowned translators of Japanese films. While subtitles seem to turn a lot of viewers off, it is the true way to watch a film. With a dubbed version, the viewer misses the vocal inflections of the actor and the voices almost always seem to be detached from their characters. Like their treatment of audio and video transfers, Criterion does a superior job with subtitle tracks. While I did not notice much of a difference between the 35 print I saw and the DVD edition (it has been about six months since I’ve seen the film), I did notice an incredible difference between the print and VHS copies of Contempt and the far superior subtitle track on the Criterion DVD. Both tracks are white over a black and white film, they are extremely legible and it is incredibly interesting to watch both translations, each of which boasts its own font style.

Kurosawa’s treatment of Macbeth is one of the benchmarks of not only Shakespeare adaptations but of the film medium itself. Any film enthusiast, Kurosawa or Shakespeare fan, or someone interested in Japanese culture should see Throne of Blood and the only way to truly view it in all of its cinematic glory is to catch it on Criterion DVD.

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