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SAMURAI BARD

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Kurosawa's

Kumonosu jô / Throne of Blood (1957)

Take Macbeth and give it an ancient samurai setting with all the stylized stuff that goes with it and you have a great film from the Japanese master.

Toshiro Mifune is the big guy. Heroic and villainous at the same time. Ends up as a pincushion.

The pieces are all there. The witches, the bloody hands, the mad scenes.

But somehow, different. And in a very positive way.

To repeat, I cannot stand much Shakespeare. But here, it is palatable. For one thing it is in Japanese and the subtitles are very well done so there isn't a lot of worry about what is happening (most of the time) or who is saying what and what it is there are saying.

It is in black and white. Sometimes massive. Horses, men, vast landscapes.

I am also open to the genré. I have had a lot of good times watching samurai films and this was no exception.

I liked it. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films