Awesome, haunting stuff but I’ve noted in my other reviews that I’m a big fan of Akira Kurosawa‘s characterization through dialogue and there isn’t much of that in Throne of Blood. It has an extremely modest runtime for his career being under two hours, but it both does and doesn’t feel its length. It takes almost halfway through the movie for Toshirô Mifune to become emperor and then there’s not enough time for things to stabilize before they unravel. The final scene (you know the one) is incredible.