The Throne of Blood

The Throne of Blood (1957)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050613/]

The Gist:
Akira Kurosawa has two relatively famous Shakespeare revisionist films. This is the first I have seen, and it's honestly a little hard to imagine the other being any better. Honestly, it's a little hard to imagine that I would like any of Kurosawa's films as much as this. The whole film is drenched in fog and massive set pieces, the story of Macbeth is altered through the characteristics of traditional Japanese Noh Theater, and Kurosawa actually altered the voices of all of his actors in post production to take out the treble and create low deep barking voices. It doesn't hurt that Macbeth is the Shakespeare play I have seen the most on stage, have read the most on paper. But honestly, this film becomes an original creation, something that all adaptations should strive for. Kurosawa has taken an established work of art and turned it into something entirely new, something more than just Macbeth with Samurais (although that alone would be and is awesome).