Throne of Blood (Kumonosu jo)
1957: Akira Kurosawa
It scarcely seems credible that one of the best films ever made of Macbeth should be in a form that does not preserve Shakespeare’s extraordinary language. But Akira Kurosawa, probably the greatest Japanese filmmaker of his age, and the man responsible for such treasures as The Seven Samurai, Ran, Yojimbo, and Kagemusha, has here created something that almost deserves to be taken as a genuine production of the play. His command of imagery is unsurpassed, and the colossal presence of Toshiro Mifune as the unshakeable Macbeth (Taketori Washizu) lends the whole an enormous and arresting immediacy. It manages to capture in its black and white format a concentration of mood that largely eludes other productions.
Commander: Jun Otomo
Commander: Masao Masuda
Commander: Shinpei Takagi
Commander: Shiro Tsuchiya
Commander: Takaeo Matsushita
Guard killed by Washizu: Takeshi Kato
Kuniharu Tsuzuki: Takamaru Sasaki
Kunimaru Tsuzuki: Hiroshi Tachikawa
Lady Asaji Washizu: Isuzu Yamada
Miki party member: Takeo Obugawa
Military Commander: Kokuten Kodo
Noriyasu Odagura: Takashi Shimura
Old Ghost Woman: Chieko Naniwa
Old Woman at castle: Eiko Miyoshi
Phantom samurai: Nobuo Nakamura
Phantom samurai: Seiji Miyaguchi
Samurai: Fuminori Ohashi
Second Miki party member: Seijiro Onda
Second Military Commander: Nakajiro Tomita
Servant: Akifumi Inoue
Servant: Kaneyuki Tsubono
Servant: Kyoro Sakurai
Taketori Washizu: Toshiro Mifune
Third Military Commander: Yoshio Inaba
Tsuki guard: Higuchi
Tsuzuki guard (as Kin Takagi): Hitoshi Takagi
Washizu samurai: Sachio Sakai
Washizu samurai: Senkichi Omura
Washizu samurai: Shin Otomo
Washizu samurai: Yoshio Tsuchiya
Washizu samurai: Yu Fujiki
Washizu samurai: Yutaka Sada
Washizu soldier: Akira Tani
Washizu soldier: Ikio Sawamura
Washizu’s workman: Kichijiro Ueda
Yoshiaki Miki: Minoru Chiaki
Yoshiteru Miki: Akira Kubo
Watch Throne of Blood on streaming video from Amazon