Cobweb Castle

Directed by
 Running time

The Cobweb Castle[1] (also known as The Throne of Blood) in a 1957 toho drama film,Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

## Plot

In The North of the mansion (Kitano us) warlords who put down the rebellion of the main and Fujimaki of, is Washizu Bhuj and Yoshiaki Miki, called callings to lord-Kuniharu Tsuzuki rejoice, I had run a horse to the Throne of Blood, thunder Among them, he lost his way in "Spider Forest", which he should be used to, and met a strange old woman. The old woman tells us that in the wake of the war, he will soon become the owner of the north hall and the owner of the cobweb castle. The two give a smile, but the reward given by the lord was to take Takeji to the lord of the north hall and Yoshiaki to the general of one fort.

The wife, Asahi, who heard the whole story from Taketoki, if Kuniharu knew the prophecy of the old woman, if it was dangerous, it would provoke a rebellion and the heart of Taketoki would shake. By the way, Kuniharu comes to the Kitanokan to defeat Fujimaki's conspiracy behind the neighboring country, Inui. That night, Asahi sleeps the guard soldiers in a liquor containing narcotics and kills Kuniharu, who is asleep at Taketoki. Noriyasu Odakura, a servant who was dressed in a slaughtered robe, possesses Kunimaru, a national son of Kuniharu, who leads to Cobweb Castle. , The two escape.

Due to Yoshiaki's strong advocacy, he was the owner of the cobweb castle, but since he has no children, he tries to welcome Yoshiaki's legitimate man, Yoshiteru. However, Asahi refused this and in addition announced pregnancy, so the mind of Taketoki changed again. The feast of adoption begins with Yoshiaki's parents and children not appearing, but during that time, Taketoki sees Yoshiaki's vision in a death costume and distracts him. When Asaya pulls the customers up, a warrior reports that Yoshiaki has escaped, although Yoshiaki killed.

On a stormy night, Asaya was stillborn, and it was reported that an army of Inui who had Kunimaru, Noriyasu and Yoshiteru was attacking. Frustrated by the vassal vassals, when he heard the roaring thunder, he remembered the old woman in the forest and ran a horse to the forest of Spider Hand alone. The old woman who appeared predicts, "You will not lose the battle unless the Forest of the Spider comes to the castle." During a wartime, he told a soldier who was surrounded by the cobweb castle and told him about the prophecy of an old woman to raise his morale. Continue washing, saying "I can't get blood." And the soldiers who bring depression into the forest of the spider's hand. Countless arrows are shot from allies, aiming at Taketoki yelling to return to his post.

## Cast

* Taketsu Washizu: Toshiro Mifune
* Asazu Washizu: Isuzu Yamada
* Noriho Odakura: Takashi Shimura
* Yoshiteru Miki: Akira Kubo
* Tsuzuki Kunimaru: Yoichi Tachikawa
* Yoshiaki Miki: Minoru Chiaki
* Tsuzuki Kuniharu: Takamaru Sasaki
* Washitsu no A Party: Gen Shimizu
* Warlord A: Kuninori Takado
* Washizu's soldier A: Yoshijiro Ueda
* Old woman: Eiko Miyoshi
* The Monster of the Phantom: Chieko Naniwa
* Warlord B: Nakajiro Tomita
* Washitsu norou Party B: Yu Fujiki
* Washizu's Guard B: Sakai Chio
* Washitsu norou Party C: Shin Otomo
* Washitsu no Roto Party D, messenger, equestrian messenger: Yoshio Tsuchiya (3 roles)
* Commander C: Yoshio Inaba
* Mikiro Party A: Takeo Ogawa
* Washizu's Guard C: Akira Tani
* Washizu's Guard D: Ikio Sawamura
* Washitsu no E Party E: Yutaka Sada
* Mikiro Party B: Seijiro Onda
* Commander D: Shinpei Takagi
* Warlord E: Masao Masuda
* Washizu norou Party F: Mitsuo Asano (Toei)
* Tsuzuki's messenger A: Akifumi Inoue
* Tsuzuki's messenger B: Asao Koike
* Tsuzuki Guard Samurai A: Takeshi Kato
* Guardians of Tsuzuki B: Hitoshi Takagi
* Tsuzuki Guard Samurai C: Hiroya Higuchi
* Washizu's soldier E: Chikichi Omura
* Tsuzuki's messenger C: Sakurai Taro
* Warlord F: Shiro Tsuchiya
* Warlord G: Takeo Matsushita
* Warlord H: Jun Otomo
* Tsuzuki's messenger D: Kamayuki Tsubono
* Warrior of the Forefront: Shimonori Ohashi
* Phantom Warrior A: Isao Kimura (Special appearance)
* Phantom Warrior B: Seiji Miyaguchi (special appearance)
* Phantom Warrior C: Shinro Nakamura (special appearance)

## Staff

* Director: Akira Kurosawa
* Production: Akira Kurosawa , Shojiro Motoki
* Screenplay: Oguni Hideo , Hashimoto Shinobu , Kikushima Ryuzo , Kurosawa Akira
* Original: William Shakespeare (from " Macbeth ") \*No credit
* Photo: Asaichi Nakai
* Art: Yoshiro Muraki
* Recording: Fumio Yanoguchi
* Lighting: Kuichiro Kishida
* Art supervision: Takatsubo Ezaki
* Music: Masaru Sato
* Director's assistant: Nonagaze Sanchi
* Special Technology: Toho Special Technology Department
* Producer: Hiroshi Nezu
* Yabusame instruction: Kaneko Kagaku (Dai Nippon Yuma Kai), Endo Shigeru (Da Nihon Yuma Kai)

## Titles

* Throne of Blood (Worldwide title)
* Cobweb castle (Original Japanese release title)

## Production

### Planning

Akira Kurosawa was contemplating a work adapted from Shakespeare 's " Macbeth " shortly after " Rashomon " was published in 1950, but it was postponed because Orson Welles had made " Macbeth " into a movie at this time  . Even before that, in 1949, when Keisuke Kinoshita was asked to think about a project starring Bando Tsuzumasaburo , Kurosawa proposed a replacement of "Macbeth" during the Warring States period  . Kurosawa said, "I thought I would try "Macbeth" because I thought it would be a Shakespeare for a drama, and I would have to study something like that. There is no such drama in Japan,"  .

1956 early, Toho and the Kurosawa, which had to leave three of the production contract, worked as a producer rather than supervise them, tried to digest the contract number by causing taken to another supervision  . We planned this work as the first work and wrote the script with Hideo Oguni , Ryuzo Kikushima , and Shinobu Hashimoto  . However, when the script was completed, it became a larger-scale project than expected, and because Toho's management team also costs to produce, Kurosawa himself requested that it be directed  . Kurosawa chose to supervise himself instead of making a new project, and became a producer  . After all, the remaining two projects were directed by Kurosawa in 1958 as "The Three Bad Men of Hidden Fort " and in 1961 as " Bouncer " .

### Shooting

Filming began on June 29, 1956  . The open set of Cobweb Castle was built on the volcanic ash of Tarobo , the second station of Mt. Fuji  . For the construction of a bad volcanic ash areas of the scaffold, had been stationed near the Occupation Forces asked to help in, built a foundation dug the volcanic ash in the bulldozers  . On a clear day, this set was as huge as it could be seen from the town of Gotemba at the foot of the set  . Inside the gate, an open set was set up on a farm near the Toho filming station in Kinuta , and the interior was shot at a studio in Tokyo  . Actor Yoshio Tsuchiya and Minoru Chiaki in et al shooting period, the inn at the foot and on location of Tarobo, Toshiro Mifune was reciprocated asked to put on the private car of the jeep. All said that their costumes and costumes remained the warriors in the play  .

The scene of the superficial madness was taken on stage, but I took the picture at midnight avoiding the daytime  . Isuzu Yamada, who played Asame, said that he built up his own act of repeatedly washing his hands with a terrible appearance, and repeated self-rehearsal by running tap water at home  . This performance of Yamada made Kurosawa say, "There is no more satisfying cut than this one"  .

At the scene where a messenger man hit the gate in the play, an actor recommended by Yoshio Tsuchiya was initially playing, but Director Kurosawa didn't like it because he said ``acting is lie,'' and spent several days, so the director's direct request in Tsuchiya is dubbed was to the  . Also, when the equestrian messenger urgently reported the enemy's affairs when Takeshi Washizu was taken, veteran equestrian staff suddenly became afraid that "the role was too heavy." For this reason, Tsuchiya, who has a good knowledge of horseback riding, is once again asked by Director Kurosawa to play the role of this messenger. Tsuchiya's third take was unsuccessful, but Kurosawa placed an order for the horse's movements and repeated the take many times. Tsuchiya, who didn't collect, deliberately ran a horse aiming at the director, chasing after the escaping director, and allowed the third take. Kurosawa later said to Tsuchiya, "I think I was about to kill me, there was murder in that eye . "

In the last scene where Washizu Taketoki, played by Mifune, shoots arrows one after another, he actually shoots a real arrow at Mifune and its surroundings  . The arrow that sticks to Mifune uses the Tegus method developed in " Seven Samurai ", and the arrow that passes through Tegus is stuck at the point where the board is prepared  . The arrow sticking around Mifune is shot by a university archery member aiming at a board fence several meters away from Mifune, and shooting it from the side with a telephoto lens seems to stick near even if the arrow is away It looked like  . Mifune said in a later year, "I was scared at this time. I thought, "I'll kill you later." I ran away while trembling," he said.

## Style

Takenori Washizu, played by Mifune, is based on the Noh mask expression of "Heita" (left) and Asamu, played by Yamada, "Kumami" (right) .

In this work, the style beauty of Noh is incorporated into the composition of the work, the facial expressions and movements of the person, and the shooting technique  . The facial expressions of the characters are based on Noh masks. Takeshi Washizu, played by Mifune, is based on "Heita  " and Asamu, played by Yamada, is based on "Sakumi  ". to have  . Washizu is a scene of rebellion and Asamu is a scene of madness, and he has different facial expressions  . In addition, the old lady of the monster that Chieko Naniwa plays is modeled on the old lady spinning the spinning wheel of " Kurotsuka "  .

The story consists of the ghost of Cite appearing, borrowing the form of a illusionary ability that tells the story of past sins and leaving. It was structured to tell the whole story  . At the beginning, she plays a male chorus like a folk song  . In order to take advantage of the form of Noh, he used a lot of long full shots to express his emotions with his whole body motion  .

Dozo Toida , a critic of Noh, said, "It's very easy for us to see Noh in the movie "Spider Web Castle." It seems that he sits down, and Macbeth Toshiro Mifune goes to another room to decide the main murder, and when Isuzu Yamada goes to the room with anxiety and expectation, the accompaniment of Noh is killed. warlords of disguise is, everyone second Shura ability Cite as well as after the happi has pointed out that with a-half-size "  .

Kurosawa armor helmet also tried costumes of reform of the movie "armor," as was put. Until now, the armored armor has the drawback that the armor is heavy and the movement of the actor is slow, and the face is hidden by the helmet, making it difficult to distinguish the characters, and there is a hex that the armored armor does not hit  . To challenge the jinx, Kurosawa asked Takatsubo Esaki, who was in charge of the historical examination in "Seven Samurai", to supervise the art  . The armor was created by Kurosawa's idea and Esaki's design, which was then produced by the armor teacher Myoukin Sokyu  . Kurosawa improved the armor helmet to the extent that it does not deviate from historical facts, and made it smarter than the traditional period drama, enabling quick action.

## Release

the film was originally released in japan by Toho on 15 January 1957, It played at 110 minutes and brought in more revenue than any other Toho film that year.

### U.S. release

In the US, the film was distributed by Brandon Films at 105 minutes and opened on 22 November 1961. In Region A, The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray in 2014, having released a DVD version 10 years before.

## Notes

1. The Film is Sometimes Translated as Spider Web Castle.