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.
Top Billed Cast
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
Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews
C CRCulverVerified TMDB Critic
2018-08-23
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...
C CinemaSerfVerified TMDB Critic
2023-04-20
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 embar...
