Kurosawa Film Festival in Manila

I watched an old Japanese movie today with my mom and sister at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The movie with the title Kumonosu-jo (Throne of Blood) transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth to medieval Japan. Coming from a great victory after defeating the lord's enemies, Mikio and Washizu are invited to visit their lord in his castle. On their way, they meet a spirit, who foretells their future and predicts great things with their descendants. Driven by his wife, Washizu murders his lord and eventually becomes the successor of the castle, but his evil deeds haunt him back.

Shown in the original 35mm format, the film is the first among the 21 movies of a great Japanese movie director, Akira Kurosawa.

Kurosawa is a prolific and multi-awarded film director, producer, screenwriter and editor whose career spanned 57 years with about 30 films to his credit as director. He entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief, unsuccessful career as a painter. He made his directorial debut during the Second World War with the popular action film, Sugata Sanshiro (Judo Saga, 1943). After the war, the critically-acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role. Kurosawa died of a stroke in Setagaya, Tokyo, at age 88.

For more details about movie screening, please contact the Japan Foundation Manila. See the photos below.

This blog entry was originally posted here