Throne Of Blood (1957)

The Japanese Macbeth! At least, I would call it that if it was actually faithful to the original! The Story The story is basically Macbeth with Samurai instead of lords. But the film is so unfaithful to the original, such as at the end of the original play, Macbeth was killed off-stage by the son of the man he murdered. In this film, he is killed, on screen by his fellow warriors and then it ends. We never see the son made a Lord in this version and the ending is very unsatisfying. Even as its own film, the story has a lot of plot holes and many unanswered questions like "Who killed the son's father?' It just makes no sense whatsoever if you have not read the original play, but this film leaves too much out that even Macbeth fans will hate it. The Characters The characters are surprisingly uninteresting, even if most of them are from Shakespeare's original play. The characters seem to do things for no reason other than that they did that in the original! The Special Effects First, I will talk about the music. It's fine, except that the flute that plays at the beginning and the end sounds like it's being played by a five year old, it will make you ears bleed! The costumes are good, even the yokai (witch) with its spiritual colour (white beings are said to have magical powers in Japanese culture) all over her, from her hair to her kimono. The camera angles that Kurosawa is well known for is basically not that good, considering that having Macbeth is a goldmine of opportunities for great camera angles. They are very bland and forgettable. Final Thoughts Overall, this film is bad as a Macbeth adaption and as it's stand alone film. The story is a mess, the characters are confusing and the special effects are just lazy. Luckily however, Japan has really great remakes of Shakespeare's plays such as the anime, Romeo X Juliet (Romeo and Juliet with a Sci-Fi twist) and the manga, Requiem of the Rose King (based on the plays Henry VI & Richard III in which Richard III has a intersexual disorder) both of which are very good on their own and as adaptions to the original plays and I can recommend them over this terrible waste of time! The Story 2/5 The Characters 1/5 The Special Effects 2/5 Overall 2/5