Throne of Blood [1957]

Welcome back to My Year of Shakespeare. This week we're watching one of the Akira Kurosawa adaptations, Throne of Blood, and I had a fantastic time with it. I watched the Criterion release, with English subtitles, so please understand that is the lens that I have viewed the film through; others may have been translated differently.

Things I enjoyed

The spirit. The spirit in the woods standing in for the witches was fascinating to me - neither evil itself (despite Washizu claiming it was) and nebulous as to how many entities it comprised, I think this was one of the pieces Joel Coen picked up and ran with for his version (the other being the intensely palpitating fog). I enjoyed how preoccupied it was with it's own little tasks - not just sitting around waiting for Washizu or Miki to talk to it, but spinning its silk or transmogrifying into warriors.

Toshiro Mifune as Taketoki Washizu. I'm fairly certain I've talked before about how, pre-home video, you acted "big" on television and "subtle" for movies because the scale of the home viewing experience needed big. I'm glad Mifune did not adhere to this standard. Every glower, grimace, dawning realization of opportunity, he emotes so hugely throughout this, The contrast of the black and white especially gave him these humongous expressive eyes.

The camerawork. This had surprisingly dynamic camerawork for a mid-50s movie - even with a little bit of shake, it's so steady I had to double check when steadicam was invented, like maybe this used a progenitor technology. It didn't, just Asakazu Nakai and Takao Saito's steady hands.

The blood-stained chamber. Presented to the audience briefly like maybe this wasn't the first time something like this happened. Like maybe the path of cut-throat ambition has a track record.

The arrows. Jesus that was a lot of arrows.

Things that didn't work for me

The Lady Macbeth role is extremely muted in its portrayal; I understand that the 50s was not the most progressive time and maybe the role is supposed to be subtle but between the makeup and the performance I had difficulty reading the actor's intent with this. That and, during Lord Tsuzuki's funerary proceedings, there's a fairly unaddressed crowd of women that it's unclear whether that is his family, wives, servants, or something else. There's not that many women in this, especially with the weird sisters turned even weirder.

The score, especially at the beginning, has a number of moments where it's hitting hard resonant peaks in the whistle register and it scared both cats out of the room. I wish it had not done that.

Next week

We are watching the 2015 Macbeth directed by Justin Krzel and starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, and then concluding the Scottish Month with Thane of East County (2015).

Next month

We're splitting up the month! It's my birthday month, so it's comedies; we're watching

• Jun 7: Twelfth Night or What You Will (1996)
• Jun 14: She's the Man (2006)
• Jun 21: Get Over It (2001) + Strange Magic (2015)
• Jun 28: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2018)

Thank you for reading along in My Year of Shakespeare