Throne of Blood has been directed by the renowned film maker, Akira Kurosawa (“Throne Of Blood 1957 Full Movie”, 2018). The film is an adaptation of the play of William Shakespeare’s, ‘Macbeth’ (Shakespeare, 2001). The setting of the movie is the transformation from the Medieval Scotland to Feudal Japan. The film is an intelligent portray of the play of William Shakespeare. Like Macbeth, the male protagonist of the play, ‘Macbeth’, the lead character of the movie named, Washizu kills his lord who is the ruler of the castle of the Spider’s web forest. He was convinced by his wife to do so in the same manner as Lady Macbeth did it in the play. The opening scene of the movie is dramatic as that of the play. In the play, Macbeth and Banquo, returns by defeating the enemy of Banquo, who was the ruler then. They were encountered with the three witches who foretells the future of Macbeth. The same scenario can be witnessed in the movie where, the generals, Miki and Washizu are the samurai commanders under the local lord, Lord Tsuzuki who reigns in the castle of the Spider’s web Forest. Even in the film these two characters were found to return by defeating the enemies of their lord. While their return to the castle they chance to meet a spirit in the forest who forecasts their future and tells them that Washizu will become the lord of the Northern Garrison and Miki will be the commander of the first fortress. After that the spirit tells that Washizu will become the Lord of the Spider’s Web castle and the son of Miki will also be the lord of the castle. The opening scene of the play as well as the movie have the same significance and they have the same background.
Figure 1: throne of blood, a film by Akira Kurosawa
Like the play the character of the protagonists have an interesting shade. He has a contrasting shade of light and dark. There are few reasons that the film can be held as a standard adaptation of the play. The background and the setting of the film is perfect and it transforms the play from the middle Scotland to contemporary Japan. Macbeth is a tragic play and the film by Kurosawa, portrays the same tragedy. It follows the narration of the play. His approach is quite original and it kept on the interest of the audience of the movie. Apart from being tragic it is a morality play that depicts a desire of an individual and his same desire destroys his life. The hero of the movie has been portrayed not as a hero but as an anti-hero. The life of Macbeth was left with emptiness. The over-reaching power of Macbeth and his ambition made him face his doom. The emptiness of his life was portrayed through his monologue in the play. in the movie, this was depicted in a more emotional way.
The movie holds a great amount of symbolism. It is however not a difficult thing to grasp the symbolism that has been portrayed in the movie. Washizu occupies the throne that is filled with blood. The reason and motivation of Washizu was more complicated and mean and this is the reason he killed the sovereign. In order to bring out the symbolic effect of the same the walls where the sovereign was murdered had blood stains on it. The spider’s castle bears multiple symbolic meaning. Spider web is a complicated thing and it symbolizes the complicated conspiracy of Washizu. It is the castle where the planning and the plotting of Washizu takes place. The Castle is the witness of all the conspiracies of Washizu. The symbolism lies in the fact that the spider is has been recognized to be the sovereign that sits on the throne but at the end is devoured by his own desires and his own ambitions. It is a labyrinth where one can easily get lost. The person can get lost because of the confusion that is there in the minds. The individual is lost in his own scheme of framing a conspiracy of trapping others and fulfill his own desire. The spirit of the forest represents the spider itself. The spirit interweaves a web to catch a fly. This context of the movie reminds the audience of the play of Shakespeare where Banquo compares his son with a fly who indicates that he was just a fly who could be consumed by a spider. The other symbolism that lies in the play is the name of the servant of Macbeth, ‘Seyton’, which indicated the evil spirit.
Figure 2: the spirit of the spider web’s forest
The film was successful as it was an interesting interpretation of the original text. The director did no completely copied the background of the text. The director transformed the culture of Scotland to his own Japanese culture. There is no witch in the movie instead there is a spirit and the enchantments made the spirit sounded like the Buddhist sage. He was inspired by the play of Noh that was famous in Japan. The Japanese culture is not known to the evil witches. The characters in the play seems to rely more on their instinct than the prophesies. It is evident in the instance where the antagonist hesitates to kill his lord because of their relation as the landlord and not because of the fact that they are of the same kin. Miki’s son disregards the sovereign powers which was offered to him and he hesitated to receive the same by calling it the part of evil spirit. He found it irrational. The concept of guilt is not present and it is replaced by the shame and violent anger. When Washizu saw the ghost of his friend he came up with the thought of killing him again.
Apart from this the attractive thing about the movie is the performance of Toshiro Mifune. He drives the whole film through his performance. The viewers of the movie is moved by his cynical laughter which is sometimes arrogant as well as terrifying. He is calm and he is a resolved character but at some moment he is passionate and ambitious. The viewer’s gets emotional when they find Mifune in pain. He was successful in giving multiple expressions. He gave a fine expression of doubt and disbelief. Like an expert he presents a strong character who is surrounded in his thoughts. The best part of his acting is his eyes. This role is redefined as he is more refined, as he reacts in a calm and composed manner while producing the brutality. His eyes depicted mixed feelings like the feelings of anger, terror, confidence and a sense of being lost.
Figure 3: Washizu, the protagonist of the movie
In the text Macbeth was motivated to commit the crime by his wife and he was convinced to commit on the grounds of morality. Lady Macbeth called Macbeth a lesser man. She was the woman who challenged the masculinity of her husband and convinced him to arouse the power in him. Washizu initially did not believe lady Asaji but when the armed men of the lord approached the castle, he realized his fears. He became paralyzed with fear for the loss of his life and this is the reason he calls his men to arms. His wife made him belief that he could be killed. She used the name of Miki for this purpose. He made Washizu convinced the fact that Miki could go and he could reveal the truth to the Great Lord about the prophecy. She had a great power of manipulation.
The portrayal of lady Asaji, the wife of Washizu was exactly the same as that of the portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the play. She is indifferent in her cruelty. She gives an evil smile when Washizu agrees to kill the Great Lord. She is the woman who can be held responsible for the doom of her husband. This is the reason she is known as the fourth witch in the play. She has been compared to Eve by some critic. As Eve convinced Adam to have the evil fruit, in the same way Lady Asaji convinced her husband to commit the crime of killing the Lord. There was no argument in her manipulation. It has been presented in a flawless manner when it comes to persuading her husband to commit the crime. Lady Asaji can be compared to a spider who carefully interlinks the web but unfortunately he gets caught in it herself. At the end of the movie she falls in the trap of death and she could find no way to escape from it. In order to remove the stains of blood of the crime she obsessively kept on washing her hand with fragrance. She was gradually heading towards the state of madness. She believed in the concept of Machiavellian and she did she sees her action as a product of degenerating time. She was brought to ruin by her own malice.
Figure 3 : Lady Asaji.
The techniques used in the throne of blood is another major similarity between the play and the movie. In order to reveal the inner thought of Macbeth, the writer used the form of soliloquy. The conspiracies formed by Macbeth was revealed by his soliloquy speeches. In the movie the conspiracies that were weaved inside the mind of the antagonist was presented by his facial expression. Soliloquy has been used by the playwrights as a language to reveal the plans that were going on inside the minds of the actors. The soliloquy took forward the plot of the play and it was used to inform the audiences about the upcoming plot of the play. In the movie the technique of Noh theatre has been applied. The emphasis has been put on the style of acting and the facial expressions. In the Noh theatre the actors put on a mask. In the movie such blatant thing has not happened this is the reason the directors uses their facial expression as masks. In both, the movie and the text the use of language allows the audience to understand the theme.
The theme of superstition is one of the most appealing factor that has been portrayed both in the movie as well as in the text. There is a scene in the movie as well as in the text where the antagonist sees the dagger floating in the air. Washizu sees the ghost of his lord whom he has murdered. In the text Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo whom he murders. The imagery used in the movie was remarkable. The smoke, the fire and the dagger created an eerie feeling in the movie. It created a spooky environment in the movie and gave goose bump to the audience. However there was a difference that was noticed in the reactions of the Macbeth and Washizu in the first scene when there was an encounter between the hero and the spirit. In the play Macbeth showed some excitement in the prophecy of the three witches. The expression of Washizu was the opposite to that of Macbeth. Instead of Washizu his friend who took the place of Banquo in the movie showed more interest in the prophecy of the spirit. Washizu had a blatant face. He was not interested in it and he wanted to leave the place but in the play Macbeth was quite interested about the fact and he had a long discussion of it with Banquo. In the movie Washizu was less excited of the fame that was about to come to him on the other hand, Macbeth was eager to get the fame that was that was a part of the prophecy of the witches. Macbeth got so carried away by the prophecy that he asked Banquo whether his sons would accept the position of kings but not even he a single time he mentioned about himself. It became conspicuous that may be he had pondering over the impediments he had to eliminate for the fulfilment of his desire. It was a contrasting situation in the movie. Washizu did not formulate this type of cognition and he became speechless after he heard the wicked prophecy.
The character of Macduff who killed Macbeth was left anonymous in the movie. The director solely focused on the inner struggle of the man. Wasjizu turned into his greatest enemy after he committed himself to murdering. The countenance of Washizu gave little information of his thought process. This was clarified through the symbols of nature. The change of nature signified the change of the mind of Washizu. It showed the deterioration of the mind of the antagonist. As the forest approached in the last section of the movie, the darkness shadowed the whole city. As the daylight showered the castle, the birds threw the whole city into confusion, the uproar of his people clouded the thoughts of Washizu. This foreshadowed the upcoming events and the confusion that was there in the mind of Washizu. He could anticipate the move the enemy and yet he remained neutral and did not make any effort to defend it.
While conclude this can be said that the basic differences between the central characters of the play, that is Macbeth and Washizu was in their extent of ambition for power. The ambition of Macbeth for the attainment of power was seen in the scene of the three witches but it was different in the movie. The ambition of Washizu remained upright after the foretelling of the spirit. The motion of the female conspirators was also different in scale. In the play Lady Macbeth convinced her husband to commit the crime and she was later guilty of the crime. She was found to wash her hand obsessively with fragrance. On the other hand Lady Asaji has threatened herself that caused a nightmare. She realized that her deeds were grotesque but she did not see her faults. Finally the character of Macduff was left anonymous. The director focused mainly on the inner struggle of Washizu and the turmoil that he has gone through is explained through the peculiar weather. The content and the narration was similar between the two but, ‘The throne of Blood’, has depicted a revolutionary idea that did not appear in the play.
References
“Throne Of Blood (1957) Full Movie”. 2018. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAsfRAOy3gc&t=428s.
Shakespeare, W. (2001). The tragedy of Macbeth (Vol. 2). Classic Books Company.
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