MACBETH ON FILM
Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood:
Macbeth as Japanese samurai warrior
Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood is filmed in black and white and appropriates (an appropriation text changed or
transformed into a new text) rather than adapts Shakespeare’s play. The new text has many similarities to the
original but the changes allow us to see the original text in a new way.
Throne of Blood transports Shakespeare’s play to 15th-century feudal Japan, a culture led by the samurai warriors.
This era was one of constant warfare between samurai clans, all vying for power. The samurai operated under a
strict code of conduct called ‘bushido’ or ‘the way of the warrior.’ This code emphasised loyalty to ones master,
self-discipline and respectful, ethical behaviour. While samurai warriors also used spears, bows and arrows, the
sword was their most famous weapon and their symbol.
1.) What similarities do you think Kurosawa saw between Shakespeare’s play and the culture of the samurai?
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2.) Examine the image of Kurosawa’s Macbeth- Washizu.
What kind of character does he appear to be?
Consider costume, body language and facial expression.
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3.) How does the above image fit with your idea of who Macbeth is?
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Sketch your own representation of Macbeth. You might like to
show a modern character. Keep in mind the visual elementscostume, body language and facial expression.
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The opening scene of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood unfolds in this way:
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Vision – a dark, misty landscape in a rural mountainous area
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Sound effects – the heavy footsteps of a group of marching soldiers
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Music- the screeching, disharmonious sound of the traditional pipes used in Japanese Noh
(A theatrical form which relies on the use of masks and slow
dance movements to tell stories with the aid of music and song.
A Noh actor aims to portray the essence of the soul of the
character, rather than imitate the characters physical
appearance.)
4.) Explain what kind of mood or atmosphere these techniques
in the opening scene.
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5.) How does the portrayal of Asaji (Lady Macbeth) resemble
that of a Noh character? Consider physical appearance, body
language and movement.
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6.) The scene where the two samurai become lost in the
forest on their way to Cobweb Castle and meet the
witch uses what techniques to create an ominous and
threatening atmosphere? …………………………………………..
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7.) How has Kurosawa used costumes and facial expressions to convey a sense of power about Washizu?
How is this achieved? Write your comments around the frame and refer to any other elements of
composition.
8.) The following frame depicts Washizu (Macbeth) just before
he murders Lord Tsuzuki (Duncan). What does the composition
of the frame suggest about the following?
a) Washizu’s state of mind?.............................................
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b) The role of Asaji (Lady Macbeth) in the murder?
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9.) Many viewers have commented on the similarities between Asaji and the witch in the forest.
What point do you think Kurosawa was making by comparing the two characters?
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Towards the end of the play, Angus reflects on the depths to which Macbeth has sunk:
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giants robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
10.) How does the above frame (Washizu shot by his own soldiers) highlight the view of Macbeth that is
presented in Angus’s speech? How has Macbeth been weakened? Consider the body language, camera
angle, shot size, lighting and the relationship of Macbeth to the surrounding soldiers.
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Biography for
Akira Kurosawa
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Date of Birth 23 March 1910, Tokyo, Japan
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Date of Death 6 September 1998, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan (stroke)
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NicknameThe Emperor , Wind Man
Mini Biography
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film
industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Judo Saga (1943).
Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom.
Drunken Angel (1948)--"Drunken Angel"--was the first film he made without extensive studio interference,
and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16
movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne
with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his
international breakthrough film Rashômon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival,
and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key,
touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare
adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro
(1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He
survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale
Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and
George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran
(1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the
more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have
always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations
of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan
Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade
Rashômon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960),
Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977).
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