Kumonosu-jou (1957)

Note Générale:

8,1/10   

Réalisateur:

Akira Kurosawa

Scénaristes:

Shinobu Hashimoto (writer)
Ryûzô Kikushima (writer)

Date de sortie:

22 novembre 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drame | Fantasy | Thriller | Guerre

Intrigue:

A ruthlessly ambitious lord, egged on by his wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become Emperor.

Plot Keywords:

Prophecy | Forest | Spirit | Shakespeare's Macbeth | Surrealism

Récompenses:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Avis des utilisateurs:

Shakespeare meets Kurosowa (round 1)

Ensemble

Toshirô Mifune	...	Taketori Washizu
Isuzu Yamada	...	Lady Asaji Washizu
Takashi Shimura	...	Noriyasu Odagura
Akira Kubo	...	Yoshiteru Miki
Hiroshi Tachikawa	...	Kunimaru Tsuzuki (as Yoichi Tachikawa)
Minoru Chiaki	...	Yoshiaki Miki
Takamaru Sasaki	...	Kuniharu Tsuzuki
Kokuten Kodo	...	Military Commander
Kichijiro Ueda	...	Washizu's workman
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Old Woman at castle
Chieko Naniwa	...	Old Ghost Woman
Nakajiro Tomita	...	Second Military Commander
Yû Fujiki	...	Washizu samurai
Sachio Sakai	...	Washizu samurai
Shin Otomo	...	Washizu samurai

Autre(s) titre(s):

Throne of Blood (UK) (USA) (original subtitled version)
Cobweb Castle
Macbeth (USA)
Spider Web Castle
The Castle of the Spider's Web

Durée:

110 min

Pays:

Japan

Langue:

Japonais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,37 : 1

Son:

Mono (Western Electric Recording) | Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding)

Classification:

Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:12 | South Africa:PG | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Sweden:15 | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Switzerland:14 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1991) | UK:12 (re-rating) (2001) | USA:Unrated

Lieux de tournage:

Izu Peninsula, Shizuoka, Japan

Société:

Toho Company

Anecdotes:

Originally, Kurosawa was planning on building merely a facade castle for the film, but this proved to be an impractical step, prompting the building of full-on castle sections to use in shooting. These were built with the help of United States Marines who were based in the area.

Goofs:

Continuité: After Mifune and his friend come to the forest clearing where the spirit dwells, as they get down from their horses, all of Mifune's arrows fall out of his quiver. In the next shot however, the quiver is full of arrows again.

Guillemet:

Old Ghost Woman: [singing] ambition is false fame and will fall, death will reign, man falls in vain

Connexions:

Référencé sur Sennen joyû (2001)

Shakespeare meets Kurosowa (round 1)

Round 2 being "Ran", an adaptation of King Lear. This first adaptation sets the bard's play "McBeth" in medieval Japan. Kurosowa decided to use a technique halfway between nô theater and adventure cinema and succeeds as always to deliver something cool, exciting and involving (not to mention time-withstanding!). Many of this movie's detractors insist that the acting is exaggerated and that Kurosowa's directing method is cold and impersonal... for your information, nô theater is about exaggerated mannerism and expression (and the script is theatrical [yet without piling up trite dialogue]) but one look at Mifune and you realize that this is in fact astonishing acting pushed a little further (his character is cool while occasionally veering towards a state of superstitious alertness, then slowly descends into madness), and he plays a villain. Your appreciation of this film depends on whether or not you can sympathize with a flawed and ultimately insane person. As for the directing, it isn't cold at all (quite visceral in fact when Mifune's character gives in to his fits and his final scene is astoundingly gripping). Never will Kurosowa be confused with the overly intellectual and distant (and inferior) Kubrick. So to all you detractors, please grant this film the following: even though it makes for an unsettling show of human corruption and deals with dark themes, it does so in a very masterful way. Not Kurosowa's best, but still a very worthy and refreshing addition to his work.