This iteration of "The Scottish Play" retains most of the narrative contours, but is enhanced by Kurosawa's compositional acuity, and ability to render the adaptation with a distinctly cinematic feel.

| Jun 27, 2023

Lacking the poetry of Shakespeare’s dialogue to fall back on, Kurosawa fills the void with evocative visuals.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 24, 2022

Throne of Blood transplanted Macbeth to the Edo period.

| Jun 14, 2022

Essential viewing for anyone interested in the cinematic arts.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 26, 2021

After Rashomon and Seven Samurai, this film is even more of a disappointment because of the traces it bears of a cinematic Grand Master at work.

| Mar 30, 2020

[UPDATED 2024 REVIEW] One of the best Shakespearean adaptations ever made, and that Kurosawa topped himself by helming the brilliant King Lear-inspired Ran 28 years later only cements the fact that he will always be heralded as one of the greats.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 18, 2014

Kurosawa grounds this downward spiral through the presence of Toshiro Mifune, who personalizes the Macbeth role while making it greater than his historical moment.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Apr 10, 2014

These most powerful of men are just puppets or, more aptly, fools embracing the illusion that they are masters of a world that views them as ... a punchline to the cosmic joke

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 23, 2014

Unavoidable consequence of human ambition.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 13, 2014

Throne Of Blood captures the spirit of Shakespeare's writing, as the driving rain, swirling fog and screeching animals lend metaphorical weight to this tale of murderous human ambition.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 4, 2013

No doubt about it now: Japan's Akira Kurosawa must be numbered with Sergei Eisenstein and D. W. Griffith among the supreme creators of cinema.

| Mar 4, 2013

No stage production could match Kurosawa's Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero -- a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows -- he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd.

| Mar 4, 2013

Throne Of Blood defeats categorisation. It remains a landmark of visual strength, permeated by a particularly Japanese sensibility, and is possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen.

| Mar 4, 2013

More an impression of Macbeth than an actual Macbeth>/i>.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 9, 2010

Akira Kurosawa's remarkable 1957 restaging of Macbeth in samurai and expressionist terms is unquestionably one of his finest works -- charged with energy, imagination, and, in keeping with the subject, sheer horror.

| Jul 1, 2008

A potent adaptation that captures all the strange atmosphere of Shakespeare's play, and invests it an exhilarating, visceral aesthetic.

| Jul 1, 2008

One of Kurosawa's best and arguably the best Shakespeare ever filmed.

| May 30, 2008

In fact, in the scene where Lady Asaji leaves a room and disappears into the darkness to get sake to make the guards drunk, the ominous rustling of her silk gown is as chilling as Lady Macbeth's lines.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 6, 2007

Toshiro Mifune gives a winning quirky performance.

| Original Score: A | Apr 5, 2007

Transplanted to medieval Japan, Kurosawa's brutal film is one of the best Shakesperean adaptations on screen, with a tour de force performance from Toshiro Mifune; it makes a fascinating double bill with the masterful Ran

| Original Score: A- | Jan 4, 2007