Throne of Blood / Kumonosu-jō (1957) — Akira Kurosawa’s Noh-inflected Macbeth (screenplay Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryūzō Kikushima, Hideo Oguni; cinematography Asakazu Nakai; music Masaru Satō; special effects Eiji Tsuburaya) . After a battle, generals Taketoki Washizu (Toshirō Mifune) and Yoshiaki Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are waylaid in Spider’s Web Forest by a spirit (the witch) who prophesies: Washizu will command the North Garrison and then become Lord of Spider’s Web Castle, while Miki’s son will inherit . Urged by his wife Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), Washizu murders Lord Tsuzuki (Takashi Shimura), frames the guards, and takes power . Haunted and paranoid, he has Miki assassinated (Miki’s son Yoshiteru escapes) and later sees Miki’s ghost at a banquet; Asaji begins compulsively washing her hands . When the forest “moves”—soldiers advance under cut branches—Washizu’s men turn on him and he dies in a hail of arrows .
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