I must first point out that I must be a total Neanderthal, as I don't particularly like Shakepeare plays or movies. The language is a pain and could use updating. I'm sure literature majors out there are having an apoplexy now that I said that. It's just that in using such stilted language, the plays often become ponderous. This is definitely NOT the case with Akira Kuraswawa's version of Macbeth. Because you really don't translate 17th century English into 17th century Japanese, the more modern language used in the movie makes this Japanese version MORE ACCESSIBLE to the average English-speaking person! Plus, the Japanese imagery (such as the witches now appearing as bleached out demons) is spectacular and exciting to watch. I think Shakespeare himself would have enjoyed the effort, though considering he is currently dead (and it appears this will not change in the near future),it is only a guess on my part. As it is, this is one of Kurosawa's best films and a must-see for film fans.

I am more of a Seven Samurai, Ran and Hidden Fortress fan myself when it comes to Akira Kurasawa's films. However I do think alongside the likes of Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and Olivier's Richard III to be one of the finest films based on Shakespeare's work ever made. Throne of Blood is a somewhat loose adaptation of Macbeth, not as bloody perhaps and set in a Japanese feudal setting, and I am aware that it has been criticised for one-dimensional characters and its dramatic structure. For me though, the dramatic structure, even with the purposefully slow-moving pace(at times),was compelling and sometimes even moving in places, and the characters while not exactly complex are not that one-dimensional in comparison to other characters in other movies. Taketoki Washizu, masterfully played by Toshiro Mifune, is one of those villains where you do feel a lot of pity for at the end I found. Whatever Throne of Blood is criticised for, I cannot deny how powerful the atmosphere conveyed is here, it is very intense and eerie with a harrowing final scene. Kurasawa's direction is superb, the basic essence of Macbeth is there but there are also touches like the Forbidden Room that are part of the director's own creative touch. Of the other acting, which is not naturalistic to start with and considering the tone and subject matter all the better for it but always effective, Isuzu Yamada is a standout, determined and intensely still. And Throne of Blood is an incredibly well made film, the camera work is exemplary and the spooky sets add so much to the atmosphere. All in all, one of the finest Shakespeare adaptations on film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Trust Kurosawa. He's a director who can take Shakespeare's Macbeth, wholeheartedly transplant it to feudal Japan, swap around many of the characters and situations, get rid of whole sub-plots and set-pieces and yet somehow create one of the most recognisable and authentic Shakespeare adaptations of all time. While Polanski's TRAGEDY OF MACBETH will always be my very favourite adaptation of this play – I saw it at an impressionable age – THRONE OF BLOOD comes a close second.

It's the most atmospheric Kurosawa film I've seen to date. Every scene is filled with foreboding and dread and the forest sequences are spectrally superb – full of creeping mist and sinister, ghostly figures. It's a film dripping with portent and laden with fear, led by a typically bravura and arresting performance from Toshiro Mifune as a 'take no prisoners' type who commands respect from the viewers despite his nefarious crimes.

There are other elements of genius in the mix, not least Isuzu Yamada's Lady Macbeth, a truly repugnant creation who made me shudder with her plotting and evil intent. You'd be forgiven for expecting an anticlimax come the ending, given the intense build-up throughout the movie, but this is one film in which the climax genuinely impresses: a scene involving a storm of arrows that's still unsurpassed until this day.