Akira Kurosawa's Kumonosu jo (Throne of Blood (1957)) is not a great film, I'm sorry I can not agree with the majority of people who have commented so far, but to me, Throne of Blood is not a successful film. The first problem is that the film, and the characters are not nearly dark enough we get no actual depth. This is supposed to be based on Macbeth, but Macbeth is an unbelievably brutal and dark work, something that is only hinted upon here. I believe that Kurosawa over reached, he'd been hailed as a genius and the acclaim had clearly gone to his head. Perhaps I see things this way because I'm not a fan of his work, I'll be the first to admit he was a very talented man, but most are blinded by the cold and static nature of his films, he wasn't a quite poetic soul, his films where just dull. That's another problem, there is no real emotion in this film, and once again Macbeth needs this emotion if we are to care about the fall of these characters. The look and structure of the film is also a problem, the slow panoramic shots of the lush Japanese scenery and the slow, structured cuts soon become irritating. It's a nice change from Kurosawa's usual fast and furious battle scenes but it doesn't feel right for this film. I hope you take this into consideration when choosing to view this film, but if you want to see a true Kurosawa classic, see Ran (1985) instead.
Review of Throne of Blood
