pretation has to accord with the original intent of the author of the source material, though certainly that is inherent in some of the critical response to the film. The dictionary definition of "adaptation" only points to certain elements in adaptation and does not answer the basic issue of what it is that critics are seeking in the second work as evidence that the original work has been well served. The dictionary definition holds that an adaptation is something that is changed or changes so as to become suitable to a new or special application or situation, or it is a composition that has been recast into a new form. Throne of Blood is certainly a recasting of Macbeth, and yet some critics still hold that it is not an adaptation but something else, whether a distillation, transmutation, or illusion.
An examination of the film and its source material will show that the film uses the plot of the original as a framework for a filmic version of a very different theatrical tradition than that of Shakespeare, the Japanese Noh drama, while retaining and expressing similar thematic concerns. The basics of the plot are clearly the same in Throne of Blood as in Macbeth, though the names of characters have been changed, the locale has been altered, and many other elements in the play have been changed into a different form in the film. Once some conception of the meaning of "adaptation" is determined, it is evident that Throne of Blood is not only an adaptation of Macbeth, it is a very good adaptation. More than this, it makes good use of the source material to transform the essential themes of Macbeth to a very different culture so as to comment both on the original material and on the social mores of the adaptive culture.
Akira Kurosawa is not an easy filmmaker to classify. He is a thoroughly Japanese filmmaker, but it is also clear that he has been influenced strongly by American films, notably American westerns, but also oth...