Throne of Blood
Kurosawa's next project, "Throne of Blood", an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth"—set, like "Seven Samurai", in the Sengoku Era—represented an ambitious transposition of the English work into a Japanese context. Kurosawa instructed his leading actress, Isuzu Yamada, to regard the work as if it were a cinematic version of a "Japanese" rather than a European literary classic. Given Kurosawa's appreciation of traditional Japanese stage acting, the acting of the players, particularly Yamada, draws heavily on the stylized techniques of the Noh theater. It was filmed in 1956 and released in January 1957 to a slightly less negative domestic response than had been the case with the director's previous film. Abroad, "Throne of Blood", regardless of the liberties it takes with its source material, quickly earned a place among the most celebrated Shakespeare adaptations.