It is hard for an Occidental to look at Throne of Blood, the Japanese version of Macbeth, with complete impartiality….

Finding a familiar story within a new context often renders its motives curiously naked. Ambition, treachery, greed—in Throne of Blood these become freed of subtlety, unwrapped from the poetry that gave them orientation. And just as poetry, philosophy, even humour, are lost, so tragedy slides into melodrama. The tersest, the most pungent and violent of all Shakespeare's tragedies, Macbeth is made credible by its poetry; raw savagery rarely lifts Throne of Blood above hysteria. Yet if the film lacks the inevitability of tragedy, at least events follow their own grim logic. (p. 22)

In an article in The Times …, Kurosawa is quoted as saying that his aim is "to give people strength to live and to face life; to help them live more powerfully and happily." Only a...