And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Throne of Blood!
Last year I watched Ran - Akira Kurosawa's take on the Shakespeare play King Lear. This year I watch Throne of Blood - Akira Kurosawa's take on the Shakespeare play Macbeth ("Aahhhhh! Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends!").
Part of the thrill of watching this play is seeing a play i am very familiar with being shown in a different context - after all that is the challenge of doing Shakespeare: presenting something that has been done countless times before in a different light. So whilst this play may not follow the text to the letter, there are still some recognisable scenes and the plot progresses the same.
But what this film really understands about the source material is that the play has a sense of mystery and dread about it. And the film certainly runs with it, what with having a lot of fog, paranoia, ominous moments and a tiny number of locations. Indeed the triumph of this movie is that does a lot with what little it has.
Throw in some compelling performances from the two leads (Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada) and a death scene that has to seen to be believed and we have a movie that has lasted very well against the march of time.
Damn Kurosawa sure knew how to make a movie, eh?
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