FilmSkool — a free film school
Throne of Blood (1957)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Shot by Asakazu Nakai · Cut by Akira Kurosawa · Music by Masaru Sato · Ratio Academy ratio · 105 min
How it was made
- The castle exteriors were built and shot on the volcanic slopes of Mount Fuji; the courtyard set at Toho's Tamagawa studio was covered in volcanic soil trucked in from Fuji so the ground would match.
- A nearby US Marine Corps base and an MP battalion helped the crew clear ground and build the fog-bound Fuji set, work Kurosawa later said left everyone exhausted and nearly sick.
- Washizu's death scene, in which archers turn on him and fill him with arrows, was shot using real arrows fired by skilled archers; Mifune signalled his intended movements with his arms so the archers could avoid hitting him.
- Production designer Yoshirō Muraki chose black for the set walls and armour to complement the fog effects, basing the design on ancient scrolls depicting Japanese castles.
- Kurosawa cut several planned shots of the Spider's Web Forest trees advancing on the castle, made by Toho's special effects department under Eiji Tsuburaya, because he was unimpressed with how they looked.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Akira Kurosawa
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.