Adapting Foreign High Culture to the National Akira Kurosawa’s Version of Shakespeare (Throne of Blood)

Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) Most famous Japanese film director outside Japan. Oscar for Lifetime Achievement (1989). Two of his films, Seven Samurai and Rashomon, on the list of world’s best films of all times. Called by critics a “pictorial Shakespeare.” Major Western filmmakers admitted being influenced by him. Two film awards, a film school and a film studio named after him

Kurosawa and the West Criticized in Japan for accommodating Western taste, politics, and values. Collaborated with Western producers, companies, and filmmakers (ex., French, American, Soviet). Made several “transpositions” of classical Western literature to Japanese setting, ex.: The Idiot (Dostoevsky), The Lower Depths (Maxim Gorky), Throne of Blood and Ran (Shakespeare).

Throne of Blood (1957) Based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth but transposed to a Japanese setting. Starring: Toshiro Mifune. Characters are given Japanese names. Changes in the plot. Absence of Shakespeare’s text. Japanese traditions and ethics. A non-Western concept of history as a cycle of infinitely repeating events. Lays an “emphasis upon predetermined action and the crushing of human freedom beneath the laws of karma.” (Stephen Prince)

Throne of Blood: Japan-ness of imagery Facial expressions Body language of kabuki theatre

Throne of Blood: Noh Theatre Masks

Throne of Blood: Ukyo-e prints