Throne of Blood

Considered part of the film canon, Throne of Blood (1957), original title Kumonosu-jo (蜘蛛巢城 "Cobweb Castle"), is a film by Akira Kurosawa based on Shakespeare's play Macbeth, whose plot it transposes to medieval Japan.

Kurosawa follows the events of Macbeth fairly closely, although Kurosawa's Washizu (played by Toshiro Mifune) is arguably less evil than Macbeth, while his wife (played by Isuzu Yamada) is even nastier than Lady Macbeth. They both get their comeuppance, Washizu in a spectacular scene where he is shot by his own archers and stumbles forward like a porcupine before being shot in the neck and staring into the camera as he dies.

The film, shot in black and white, is arguably one of the finest of its time, creating a phantasmal world between the witches that give Washizu what he wants and the lunar landscape of his heart and his home.