WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS! IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE THE PLOT SPOILED FOR YOU, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies and one of the bloodiest (the other one being Titus Andronicus). In 1957 Akira Kurosawa recycled the play in Feudal Japan.
The plot is straightforward enough: Generals Washizu (Macbeth) and Miki (Banquo) work the Lord of Spider's Web Castle (King Duncan). While returning home victorious from battle they encounter a strange spirit in the forest. She tells Washizu that he will become Lord of Spider's Web Castle and Miki that his son will become Lord of the castle. Egged on by his ambitious wife Asaji (Lady Macbeth), Washizu kills the lord and succeeds him. When Miki stands in the way of his plans, Washizu has him killed. And it all goes downhill from there.
There were three things I found very nice and I will give them in chronological order. Washizu has just murdered the lord and comes in clutching the bloody spear in his hands. He is frozen with fear and horror and Asaji pries the spear out of his hands and plants on the guards whom she has drugged. I half expected Asaji to say out loud "Infirm of purpose. Give me the daggers!", or at least something along those lines. But neither of them said any word. And Washizu just stares at his hands as if saying "What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood from my hand? No, this hand would rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." And then Asaji runs through the courtyard crying "Murder!".
The second one was Washizu having had Miki killed and is currently at a banquet. He is drinking copious amounts of wine. He looks over at Miki's vacant mat and suddenly he sees the dead man's ghost. He is terrified and inadvertently blurts out his crime by saying he would kill him again. Asaji tried to make up for this by saying that he has had too much to drink.
Third one involves Washizu returning to see the spirit who says that only when Spider's Web Forest rises up against him will he be defeated. In other words, "Macbeth shall ne'r vanquished be until great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." And guess what happens? The forest comes against him. Not to mention that Asaji goes mad and starts washing her hands trying to remove what she thinks to be the smell of blood.
The only problem I had with the DVD is that the subtitles weren't all that great. They were not translated very well and the sentences came out weird. It wasn't as bad as Zero Wing, however.
This film is definitely a must-see for anyone who loves Shakespeare adaptations. Oh, and did I mention that the spirit was played by a man? No doubt a reference to Banquo's comment on the witchs' appearance: "You should be women but your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so."
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