Kumonosu-jou (1957)

Director:

Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Shinobu Hashimoto (writer)
Ryûzô Kikushima (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

22 November 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | Thriller | War

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Prophecy | Forest | Spirit | Shakespeare's Macbeth | Surrealism

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Taketori Washizu
Isuzu Yamada	...	Lady Asaji Washizu
Takashi Shimura	...	Noriyasu Odagura
Akira Kubo	...	Yoshiteru Miki
Hiroshi Tachikawa	...	Kunimaru Tsuzuki (as Yoichi Tachikawa)
Minoru Chiaki	...	Yoshiaki Miki
Takamaru Sasaki	...	Kuniharu Tsuzuki
Kokuten Kodo	...	Military Commander
Kichijiro Ueda	...	Washizu's workman
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Old Woman at castle
Chieko Naniwa	...	Old Ghost Woman
Nakajiro Tomita	...	Second Military Commander
Yû Fujiki	...	Washizu samurai
Sachio Sakai	...	Washizu samurai
Shin Otomo	...	Washizu samurai
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Washizu samurai
Senkichi Ômura	...	Washizu samurai
Yoshio Inaba	...	Third Military Commander
Takeo Obugawa	...	Miki party member
Akira Tani	...	Washizu soldier
Ikio Sawamura	...	Washizu soldier
Yutaka Sada	...	Washizu samurai
Seijiro Onda	...	Second Miki party member
Shinpei Takagi	...	Commander
Masao Masuda	...	Commander
Akifumi Inoue	...	Servant
Kyoro Sakurai	...	Servant
Kaneyuki Tsubono	...	Servant
Takeshi Katô	...	Guard killed by Washizu
Hitoshi Takagi	...	Tsuzuki guard (as Kin Takagi)
Higuchi	...	Tsuki guard
Shirô Tsuchiya	...	Commander
Takaeo Matsushita	...	Commander
Jun Ôtomo	...	Commander
Fuminori Ohashi	...	Samurai
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Phantom samurai
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Phantom samurai
Gen Shimizu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Isao Kimura	...	Phantom samurai (uncredited)

Directed by
Akira Kurosawa

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shinobu Hashimoto		writer
Ryûzô Kikushima		writer
Akira Kurosawa		writer
Hideo Oguni		writer
William Shakespeare		play "Macbeth"

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

Original Music by
Masaru Satô

Cinematography by
Asakazu Nakai

Film Editing by
Akira Kurosawa

Production Design by
Yoshirô Muraki

Costume Design by
Yoshirô Muraki

Makeup Department
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

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
Kuichiro Kishida	....	lighting director
Takao Saitô	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Taiki Mori	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Chozo Obata	....	negative cutter

Other crew
Shigeru Endo	....	horseback riding instructor
Ikemichi Hashimoto	....	accountant
Ienori Kaneko	....	horseback riding instructor
Teruyo Nogami	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Toho Company (presents)
• Kurosawa Production Co.

Distributors

• Toho Company (1957) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Toho Video (2002) (Japan) (DVD)
• Atlantic Film (1994) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Cowboy Pictures (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Television och Smalfilm (1965) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Arte Vidéo (2001) (France) (DVD)
• Brandon Films (1961) (USA) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Krause & Schneider Multimedia (KSM) (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Sandrews (2006) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Tocantins (Brazil) (VHS)
• Wild Side Vidéo (2006) (France) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Toho Special Effects Group

Other Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

Throne of Blood (UK) (USA) (original subtitled version)
Cobweb Castle
Macbeth (USA)
Spider Web Castle
The Castle of the Spider's Web

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 | 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:

Izu Peninsula, 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:

Old Ghost Woman: [singing] ambition is false fame and will fall, death will reign, man falls in vain

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Exhumed (2003) (V)

Best Shakespeare on Film

As most people know, this is Shakespeare's Macbeth rendered by Kurosawa into Noh format for cinema. Not for nothing is Akira Kurosawa regarded as Japan's greatest director, for this is the best cinematic version of any Shakespeare play (and also one of Kurosawa's best films). Kurosawa had the advantage of working in a different language (Japanese), so he didn't have to agonize over the usual dilemma - whether to use Shakespeare's rotund oratory and blank verse (which is glorious, but goes badly on screen). Kurosawa essentially translates Shakespeare's poetry into visual images, while keeping dialogue to a minimum. He also had the good fortune of accessing two great cultures - European literature and Japanese visual art (he was originally a painter before entering cinema as a set-designer). There are many painterly images reminiscent of Ukiyo-e (e.g. Washizu full of arrows).

The Noh style of acting (like Kabuki, but more refined) seems stilted and exaggerated for the first few minutes; then you realize that is ideally suited to a story like this - more natural acting would seem out of place, as other Macbeth-movies go to prove.

The Japanese title of this film translates as "Cobweb Castle" (or Spider City) and this really should have been the title in English. The film is full of the notion of spiders spinning webs (and plots) in secret. It is worth noting that the witch (or "monster") is first seen with a ghostly spinning-wheel. This symbolizes the thread of fate, but also reflects the cobweb theme.

The story is sometimes slow-moving, but you have to realize that this is a story of insidious slow rot (hence the references to spiders and cobwebs). The decay is punctured by occasional bursts of violent action, as befits the story. The black-and-white picture adds to the creepiness, and the atmosphere is so thick that the movie works more effectively than "Ran" (Kurosawa's more polished Shakespeare-adaptation).

Macbeth is the great-granddaddy of the entire horror genre, and Kurosawa is a worthy descendant.