The Mist of Greed

【Abstract】Throne of Blood is a successful adaptation directed by famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa of Shakespeare’s masterpiece—Macbeth in 1957. The plot of that the two main characters are trapped in the forest is not included by the original story of Macbeth. By analyzing details of the scene， it can be seen as a symbolization of how people being trapped in the mist of greed.

【Key words】An Adaptation of Macbeth; Akira Kurosaw; Scene Analysis

【作者簡介】张馥莉，青岛大学。

Throne of Blood is a successful adaptation directed by famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa of Shakespeare’s masterpiece—Macbeth in 1957. Based on the story of Macbeth the master filmmaker developed the story of Japanese General Taketoki being enticed by the prediction of a witch， murdering the king and finally being killed by his soldiers. The scene of the two generals losing their way in the fog after they meet the witch in the forest for the first time and finally getting out of the thick fog has not been mentioned in Shakespeare’s original text. The original text does not even mention if the forest is hard to get out of or not.. The scene can be seen as a symbolization of how people being trapped in the mist of greed.

The scene before the two characters getting out of the mist is generally about how they come into and leave the frame several times. It can be divided into three parts.

The first part of the scene includes four quick moving shots. Beginning with the remaining dissonance from the end of last scene and finally being drowned out by the noise of hooves， these two scenes are connected smoothly and the feeling of the witch’s mystery and danger is felt by the audience. Also the music with a sense of uneasy gives the audience an ominous presentiment of the following danger. In the atmosphere of the former horror， the two characters images appear from the middle of the thick mist whose pure white color covers everything and quickly disappear into the mist with four different tracks. It shows up the two characters are totally trapped in the fog although they anxiously try hard to run out of it. With the darkening lightthe fog looks more gray and yellow and the strange post-dubbed melody which rising and fading almost randomly， the atmosphere indicates the uneven feelings inside of the two characters. Being unable to get out the fog after so many tries， their emotions of anxiety and annoying are getting out of control like the melody. The quick editing and the nosing of hooves also leave the audience with growing tension.

After the four moving shots， there is a long take. During the unusual length of shot although the position of the camera tracks the two characters slightly when they come near the camera， the position of the frame almost staying at the same place. Thus， we can clearly view and recognize how the two characters are just blindly circling around the same small area and how frequently they change their direction impatiently. We can see that the two characters’ anxiety and angst have driven them insane and cannot make decisions out of their mind， which shows how easily these two bold and powerful generals were beaten by the fog and gives the audience a hint of weakness of the two generals’ mind.

In the final part of the three parts before the two characters getting out of the fog， the two characters are running straight towards the camera， entirely turning over and disappearing in the thick fog covering everything. The film was cut into the next shot immediately in which the fog is thinner and we can even clearly see the herbs on the ground. Although the shots are connected in no time， there could be unimaginable long time between the two motions of the characters because the degree of the fog thickness differs so much.

In the above three parts the scene shows how the two characters are losing control emotionally， rationally and physically in the fog. And in the following parts of the scene， the characters，‘actions and dialogue will shows us the reason of their losing control.

In the following part of the whole scene， the two characters finally find the fog is thinner and the castleis already in their view. Taketoki Washizu says unexpectedly that he was too tired because of his heavily weighs armor which is the basic equipment of a soldier. This sign not only indicates the weakness of Taketoki Washizu which makes him easy to be enticed by the witch’s words. And the sign suggests the fact that Taketoki is tired of being just a soldier who is responsible for satisfying the desire of land of his king. Also this added plot to the original story also leads us smoothly to the communication between the two generals.

In the last part， we can find another extremely long take. There is no post-dubbed sound throughout the shot and the two generals are just sitting on different sides of the frame with almost no obvious action. Under the strict and stressful atmosphere， the two characters staying in silence for several seconds and makes the atmosphere even creepier. In that situation， the audience can easily assume that the two characters are considering the witches words and trying to figure their benefits respectively. Especially when after an awkward silence， we can hear the two characters start to laugh. The laugh always begins with Taketoki， with Yoshaki’s later joining and ends with Taketoki’s laugh only. The reason is that Taketoki’s laugh makes the worrying Yoshaki afraid to refuse to follow but he cannot keep laughing because he knows if the witch’s words are true even if his sonbecomes the king， he will unfortunately be seen as a threat to Taketoki’s power.

Generally in the second half of the scene where the two characters actions and words could all be relevant to their greedy desire of the power in the witch’s words. The greed raises their thought and trapped them.

Besides， as the fog， smoke and dust appears a lot in other scenes of the movie， we could also see a lot of evidence of the symbolization of the mist of greedy that trapped people into it. For example when Taketoki kills Yoshaki， the whole castle is crowded with the smoke and sand for no reason. The sand is just a symbolization of Taketoki’s cruel greed. He is so afraid of whether his power will be really threatened by Yoshaki’s son as the witch’s word say， loses control of himself and kills Yoshaki through Yoshaki trusts him a lot. In addition， in the last scene of the movie， the whole castle was drowned by the smoke and turned into the waste land. The old men sing during that process “A scene of carnage born of consuming desire never changing now and throughout eternity.”[1] It indicates the thesis of the movie that people gets caught by the illusion of desire which leaves nothing but ruins after years and raises the tragedy of war.

Life is always full of vague possibilities. There is always no guarantee of our future. People sometimes see the likelihood of satisfaction and makes their choice， without seeing if there are cliffs or just nothing in front of us. However just as Haruki Murakami said in Norwegian wood， “it is just so hard to ignore the possibility” （45-46 ）.

References：

[1]Kurosawa， et al. Throne of Blood[J]. Media Home Entertainment， 1987.

[2]Murakami， et al. Nuowei De Sen Lin.第1版[M]. Shanghai Yi Wen Chu Ban She，2007.