Throne of Blood reaction

            Throne of Blood was a cultural adaption of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, though with out formerly knowing this, one would have not guessed.  On its own the film has a strong standing, but when looking at it with the view of it being an adaptation of Macbeth, it falls a little short.  This being based solely on my opinion, I would say that the film lost the “essence” of Macbeth. The several alterations that Kurosawa made to the story steered it too far away from the original. Now, I am not saying that all adaptations have to have absolute fidelity to the original. Because I thoroughly enjoyed the Eastern Asian take on Macbeth, but the alteration he made to the characters and the plot bothered me. First off the stand-in for Duncan’s character did a complete personality flip; from generous ruler, we go to ruthless tyrant.  This alone places the plot on a different path. Then Lady Macbeth in a roundabout way says that they must kill the Shogun, because he will kill them if Miki tells him of the prophecy. Thus, altering the main character’s purpose of killing the king, which is the conflict the whole play, is centered on.  This film altered the characters ambitions, which is arguably the driving force of the play. 

1.     Are there any other cultural adaptions of Macbeth? If so, how many alterations were made to the plot?

2.     Was there any meaning behind the chosen Japanese names for the characters?

3.     Was there any significance of the crazy decoration on the helm of Washizu?