Of all the filmmakers whose work I need to familiarize myself with, and there are far too many, Akira Kurosawa is perhaps the one who I most want to become acquainted with. I don’t know what it is about Kurosawa, but it seems like his films would interested me. With so many purported classics amongst his filmography, “Throne of Blood” seemed like as good a place as any to start. Although I liked the film, I hope certain elements of it aren’t representative of Kurosawa’s work.
Set in feudal Japan, “Throne of Blood” is Kurosawa’s take on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” In this version, Toshirô Mifune plays a trusted general named Taketoki Washizu. After defeating a mutinous samurai in battle, Washizu and his friend and fellow general, Yoshiaki Miki
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While I did find some interesting things with Kurosawa’s camera angles, camera movement and blocking, I was much more intrigued by his control of tone. Kurosawa shows a mastery of the dark and foreboding mood of this film, as it feels almost oppressive with its gravity. He also creates and maintain tension quite well in a number of scenes, such as the opening scene and a conversation halfway through between Washizu and his wife.
Most impressively, however, he does a fantastic job of making the film eerie. I have already related how Yamada can be quite unnerving, but she isn’t the only one. Every scene with the witch in the wood is genuinely creepy and disquieting, as Kurosawa gets great performances out of his actors and uses the visuals, like the fog, to great effect. The witch isn’t the only creepy scene though, as Washizu’s hallucinations at a feast are also quite startling and make viewers’ skin crawl.
Moreover, Kurosawa is clearly a good storyteller (the screenplay is by Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hasimoto, Ryȗzô Kikushima and Kurosawa). The film grabs you from the opening scene, the chanting notwithstanding, as we eagerly anticipate news of the battle that occurs off screen. Kurosawa then keeps moviegoers interested for the next hour, creating some very suspenseful scenes and crafting an intriguing
William Shakespeare, one of the greatest English play writers, has had a profound influence upon different societies globally since the fifteenth century, for his plays inspire many contemporary artists to present new scopes reflecting their societies. Considered as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Macbeth has a completely disparate interpretation of the movie Scotland, PA, which translates the original play into a black comedy. A Scottish royal and general, Macbeth the protagonist undergoes a demonic transformation in personality, in which he unethically takes the crown by murdering numerous characters. The director of the movie alters the plot while maintaining the basic semblance of power, ambition, and masculinity from Shakespeare’s work. In the movie, the alteration of the process Macbeth usurps the power of Duncan, including his internal and external incentives, gives the audience a fresh perspective on one of the English classical plays.
Overall this movie was exciting. It had lots of important information about the Salem Witch Trails. The director of this movie knew exactly who his audience would be and hit it out of the park by adding things that the audience would understand. The writer also had made this appeal to a very special audience. He knew who would most likely see the film and tried to stay true to that.
Like a painting by Dali, you feel that every new thing you uncover has another waiting below it. The camera angles and lighting are tied into the film to turn the whole story into a smooth flowing work that is more pleasing to watch in black and white than most movies are in color. The overacting makes a few scenes in the movie difficult to watch, but the rest of the film picks up the slack.
The snow creates a perfectly eerie atmosphere of dark cold and despair, and the monsters, when they get to shine, are fascinating. KRAMPUS shows up about 25 minutes in, and his first showing is wonderfully executed with his tall and foreboding presence making a large impact. None of it is really frightful though, just kind of creepy. The parts that should be fearsome are more intense, but they are well constructed and by the end the endless bombardment of creatures and horror is undoubtedly effective. Director Michael Dougherty seems to be working with the same tools that Sam Raimi might have in his early career in making ultimately goofy things terrifying, but he only partly succeeds in actually scaring the audience.
them as unattractive and menacing and everything about this scene is threatening and ugly and makes the audience feel uncomfortable impact. in the audience of the. The music is like funeral music, loud and sad. The... ... middle of paper ... ...bloodshed and murder that follow.
This scene begins with two samurai on horseback riding in and stopping at the edge of a forest. They have a conversation and then they ride on. After a little bit, they stop and talk again and conclude that they are lost. One of the samurai shoots an arrow into the tree tops and an evil spirit laughs at them. The two samurai ride on, sure that they can find their way to the castle. Soon they come across a small hut with an old man singing and spinning a loom. The old man proceeds to tell each samurai his future. When done the two samurai look at each other and the old man disappeared. Then two samurai, amazed that the old man is gone, tear down the back wall and walk through it. They turn around and the whole hut is gone now. The two samurai then get back on their horses and ride onwards. They then appear to get lost in some thick fog.
shows the witches are ones who believe in evil spirits, as most witches are portrayed as.
This film had spectacular performances from the actors, especially Takashi Shimura, who plays Kanbei. Kanbei is a seasoned samurai and he was first chosen by the elders of the village. Toshiro Mifune’s plays Kikuchiyo who is an abrasive samurai who bridges the gap between the warriors and the people who live in the village.
This movie is beautiful to watch, yet difficult. It is raw, yet the cinematography is breath...
The amazing actions scenes just leap out of the screen and the film is still
After viewing Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 film, Throne of Blood, one would find it best to describe the work as a successful transcription of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The term transcription here is used while maintaining the biological denotative sense—the process where information is copied from one entity, and used as the basis for the fruition of an entirely new entity bearing the familiar inherent insignia of its predecessor. Kurosawa, while adjusting the events that occur in the original, has taken Shakespeare’s Macbeth and more than successfully produced an adaptation rich in Japanese aesthetic, history, and devices used in the Japanese style of storytelling. Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, arguably, creates a more poignant interpretation regarding themes of destiny vs. rampant individual ambition.
...impossible to find myself anywhere but sitting on the edge of my seat. It was difficult to predict what would come next, constant suspense was all around. Thus, making the situations portrayed more interesting and entertaining to the viewer of the film.
Drawing on pictorial traditions as venerable as sumi-e (black and white ink brush painting), yamato-e (landscape painting in the Japanese style), and emaki-mono (narrative picture scrolls), the Japanese cinema was characterized by a pictorial elegance not seen anywhere else in the world. A propensity for long takes and long shots gave many of the films a stately, leisurely, contemplative pacing that appealed to many young film critics and filmmakers. The creation of mood, of tone, was similarly a unique property of the Japanese cinema. Combined with many theatrical elements, the films presented themselves as the product of a culture that seemed far from the one that waged fierce war on the world. The stylistic experiments of Kurosawa (one of the rare directors who were as comfortable with dynamic montage as he was with long takes) and Ozu (a filmmaker virtually unique, but not sui generis, with his graphic matches, narrative ellipses, dramatic de-emphasis, and singular thematic concern) grew out of a prolific, varied, and exciting cinematic period. (Grant p.
Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the most enigmatic movies in the history of cinematography. This masterpiece has been fascinated those viewers who appreciate professionalism and unusual qualities of the film, but also those souls who are always looking for some deeper answers. What make this movie is so extraordinary and different from others? It cannot be just one thing, indeed it is a totality of the experience. Not only the winning combination of interesting plot, haunting images, genuine dialogues, complicated characters of the protagonists makes Stalker unforgettable, but also the eerie feeling of being touched somewhere deep down by very strange but powerful force.
Although admittedly some scenes have a comical side to them, Besson's fast paced action and gruesome images hold the tension and suspense brilliantly. His use of close-ups and camera movements, especially the subjective stance used by the victim, convey the feelings felt by the characters and the way in which they behave. Sound plays a crucial role in the opening sequence because, in my view, it is used to control the level of suspense and intrigue.