Kumonosu-jô (1957)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Hideo Oguni (screenplay) &
Shinobu Hashimoto (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 November 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A ruthlessly ambitious lord, egged on by his wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become Emperor.

Plot Keywords:

Prophecy | Forest | Castle | Shakespeare's Macbeth | Battle

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Taketoki Washizu
Isuzu Yamada	...	Lady Asaji Washizu
Takashi Shimura	...	Noriyasu Odagura
Akira Kubo	...	Yoshiteru Miki
Hiroshi Tachikawa	...	Kunimaru Tsuzuki (as Yôichi Tachikawa)
Minoru Chiaki	...	Yoshiaki Miki
Takamaru Sasaki	...	Kuniharu Tsuzuki
Gen Shimizu
Kokuten Kôdô	...	Military Commander
Kichijirô Ueda	...	Washizu's workman
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Old Woman at castle
Chieko Naniwa	...	Old Ghost Woman
Nakajirô Tomita	...	Second Military Commander
Yû Fujiki	...	Washizu samurai
Sachio Sakai	...	Washizu samurai
Shin Ôtomo	...	Washizu samurai
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Washizu samurai
Yoshio Inaba	...	Third Military Commander
Takeo Oikawa	...	Miki party member
Akira Tani	...	Washizu soldier
Ikio Sawamura	...	Washizu soldier
Yutaka Sada	...	Washizu samurai
Seijirô Onda	...	Second Miki party member
Shinpei Takagi	...	Commander
Masao Masuda	...	Commander
Mitsuo Asano
Akifumi Inoue	...	Servant
Asao Koike
Takeshi Katô	...	Guard killed by Washizu
Hitoshi Takagi	...	Tsuzuki guard
Michiya Higuchi	...	Tsuki guard
Senkichi Ômura	...	Washizu samurai
Kyorô Sakurai	...	Servant
Shirô Tsuchiya	...	Commander
Takaeo Matsushita	...	Commander
Jun Ôtomo	...	Commander
Kamayuki Tsubono	...	Servant
Fuminori Ôhashi	...	Samurai
Isao Kimura	...	Phantom samurai
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Phantom samurai
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Phantom samurai

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits
Hideo Oguni		(screenplay) &
Shinobu Hashimoto		(screenplay) &
Ryûzô Kikushima		(screenplay) &
Akira Kurosawa		(screenplay)
William Shakespeare		(play "Macbeth") uncredited

Produced by
Akira Kurosawa	....	producer
Sôjirô Motoki	....	producer

Original Music by
Masaru Satô

Cinematography by
Asakazu Nakai

Production Design by
Yoshirô Muraki

Makeup Department
M. Kobayashi	....	makeup artist
Yoshiko Matsumoto	....	hair stylist
Junjiro Yamada	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Hiroshi Nezu	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yoshimitsu Banno	....	assistant director (as Yoshimitsu Sakano)
Hiromichi Horikawa	....	chief assistant director
Mimachi Norase	....	chief assistant director
Ken Sano	....	assistant director
Shoya Shimizu	....	assistant director
Yasuyoshi Tajitsu	....	assistant director
Michio Yamamoto	....	assistant director

Art Department
Kôhei Ezaki	....	art supervisor
Koichi Hamamura	....	property master
Yoshifumi Honda	....	assistant art director
Kaneko	....	props

Sound Department
Ichirô Minawa	....	sound effects editor
Masanao Uehara	....	assistant sound
Fumio Yanoguchi	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Eiji Tsuburaya	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Masao Fukuda	....	still photographer
Shozo Hada	....	assistant lighting technician
Kuichirô Kishida	....	lighting director
Takao Saitô	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Taiki Mori	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Chozo Obata	....	negative cutter

Other crew
Fabrice Arduini	....	french adaptation: original version with subtitles
Shigeru Endo	....	horseback riding instructor
Ikemichi Hashimoto	....	accountant
Ienori Kaneko	....	horseback riding instructor
Teruyo Nogami	....	script supervisor
Keiko Tsubai	....	french adaptation: original version with subtitles
Pascal Vincent	....	press attache: France (re-release: 2001 )

Production Companies

• Toho Company (presents)
• Kurosawa Production Co.

Distributors

• Toho Company (1957) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Toho Video (2002) (Japan) (DVD)
• Alive (2001) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Atlantic Film (1994) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Cowboy Pictures (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Kommanditbolaget Mårten Kihlman Ky & Co (1982) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Television och Smalfilm (1965) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Théâtre du Temple (????) (France) (theatrical)
• Arte Vidéo (2001) (France) (DVD)
• Brandon Films (1961) (USA) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Filmfrikki (????) (Finland) (DVD)
• Krause & Schneider Multimedia (KSM) (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• La Sept Video (1999) (France) (VHS)
• Media Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Sandrews (2006) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Tocantins (Brazil) (VHS)
• Wild Side Vidéo (2006) (France) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Toho Special Effects Group

Other Companies

• C.D.C.  Italian post-synchronized version made by
• Fono Roma  post-synchronization: Italian dubbed version
• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

"Throne of Blood" - International (English title), UK, USA (imdb display title)
"Cobweb Castle" -
"Spider Web Castle" -
"The Castle of the Spider's Web" -
"Trono de sangre" - Argentina, Mexico (imdb display title), Spain
"Blodets tron" - Sweden
"Blodets trone" - Denmark
"Das Schloß im Spinnwebwald" - West Germany
"Das Schloss im Spinnwebwald" - Switzerland (German title)
"De bloedige troon" - Belgium (Flemish title) (imdb display title)
"Il trono di sangue" - Italy
"Krvavý trón" - Czechoslovakia (Slovak title) (imdb display title)
"Kurosawan Macbeth" - Finland (reissue title)
"Le château de l'araignée" - France
"Le trône de sang" - Canada (French title)
"Le trône de sang: Le château de l'araignée" - Canada (French title)
"Le trone sanglant" - France
"O thronos tou aimatos" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Seittien linna" - Finland
"Tron we krwi" - Poland
"Trono Manchado de Sangue" - Brazil
"Trono de Sangue" - Portugal (imdb display title)
"Véres trón" - Hungary (imdb display title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording) | Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:12 | South Africa:PG | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-15 (new rating: 2001) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Germany:12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Switzerland:14 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1991) | UK:12 (re-rating) (2001) | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

The famous arrow scene near the end was in fact done with real arrows. That is, the arrows hitting the wooden planks were not done with special effects, but rather choreographed with archers. Mifune waves his arms to brush away the arrows sticking from the planks, indicating to them that he wanted to go in that particular direction. The real arrows were included to get Mifune's facial expressions of real-life fear, which is exceptionally hard to imitate. Of course, the arrows that hit the Mifune character were bamboo fakes.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Mifune and his friend come to the forest clearing where the spirit dwells, as they get down from their horses, all of Mifune's arrows fall out of his quiver. In the next shot however, the quiver is full of arrows again.

Quotes:

Lady Asaji Washizu:I am... with child.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sennen joyû (2001)

Shakespeare meets Kurosowa (round 1)

Round 2 being "Ran", an adaptation of King Lear. This first adaptation sets the bard's play "McBeth" in medieval Japan. Kurosowa decided to use a technique halfway between nô theater and adventure cinema and succeeds as always to deliver something cool, exciting and involving (not to mention time-withstanding!). Many of this movie's detractors insist that the acting is exaggerated and that Kurosowa's directing method is cold and impersonal... for your information, nô theater is about exaggerated mannerism and expression (and the script is theatrical [yet without piling up trite dialogue]) but one look at Mifune and you realize that this is in fact astonishing acting pushed a little further (his character is cool while occasionally veering towards a state of superstitious alertness, then slowly descends into madness), and he plays a villain. Your appreciation of this film depends on whether or not you can sympathize with a flawed and ultimately insane person. As for the directing, it isn't cold at all (quite visceral in fact when Mifune's character gives in to his fits and his final scene is astoundingly gripping). Never will Kurosowa be confused with the overly intellectual and distant (and inferior) Kubrick. So to all you detractors, please grant this film the following: even though it makes for an unsettling show of human corruption and deals with dark themes, it does so in a very masterful way. Not Kurosowa's best, but still a very worthy and refreshing addition to his work.