SOURCE: "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood: Washizu and Miki Meet the Forest Spirit," in Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 3, 1983, pp. 167-73.

[In the following essay, Jorgens explains the psychological differences between Macbeth and Throne of Blood with a detailed analysis of the opening sequences of the film.]

Macbeth's first line in Shakespeare's play, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen," announces the theme of moral ambiguity and confusion in time of war, and initiates a scene from which the play's whole action flows. On the way home from battle, Macbeth and Banquo (who, we have learned, have both fought bravely for King Duncan against traitorous rebels) encounter an unholy trinity who are themselves ambiguous. They "look not like th'inhabitants o' th' earth / And yet are on't." They "should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so." They riddle in...