Master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa channels the Bard to create Throne of Blood, a simultaneous adaptation and expansion of the famous tragedy Macbeth. In many ways, it is the very "Japanese-ness" of Kurosawa's retelling—the characters, the setting, the style, and the deviations from the original text—that makes the film a standout among all other previous and subsequent adaptations of the Shakespeare classic.
     Toshiro Mifune takes on the Macbeth role as Taketori Washizu. Early in the film, he and fellow compatriot Miki (Minoru Chiaki) find themselves lost in the wilderness surrounding their lord's castle. In the maze of trees, they meet a creepy witch who prophecies that Washizu will soon rise to power, but that Miki's offspring will assume control thereafter. The two soldiers return to the castle, and quickly learn that one of the witch's lesser predictions has come to pass. This turn of events so affects Washizu that he tells his wife, Lady Asaji (Isuzu Yamasa), about his supernatural encounter. And like Lady Macbeth, the thoroughly ruthless Asaji convinces her husband to murder the feudal lord and usurp power. Though initially resistant to her commands, Washizu gives into his wife and commits murder, the first step in a long, bloody road to ruin as Washizu succeeds in fulfilling his end of the prophecy, but ultimately traps himself in a claustrophobic hell of his own making.
     Throne of Blood may not be a rousing adventure in the tradition of The Seven Samurai or The Hidden Fortress, but that is by no means a criticism of the film's merits. Throne of Blood is its own animal—dark, chaotic, and above all brilliant. Rather than show us a world in which heroes fight on the side of good, Kurosawa instead plunges us headlong into Washizu's nightmarish reality of shadows and fog, a world where destiny and free will collide, with tragic results. And heck, if that doesn't sell you on the movie, then perhaps this will: Throne of Blood contains the single most intense, frightening, and oddly humorous scene of death by multiple arrows ever put on film. No joke. Hero, eat your heart out! (Calvin McMillin, 2003)