Throne of blood.

A supernatural political thriller? That makes trees seem scary? It is easy to see how this film could have gone wrong, but I feel the film was extraordinarily good.  It combined the stories of evil spirits you see in myths about kings and sultans all over the eastern world, with a gripping realistic depiction of political intrigue and assassination with great skill and is unlike any other film or genre I've come across.

The story starts off with reports of a battle; the viewer is aware of exciting turns but does not get to see any of them. I think this really sets the tone; the battles aren't quite as important as the twists, turns and intrigue. The spirit, the forest and the way the two generals’ deal with the spirit is akin to what you’d see in the Panchatantra or the Arabian nights. Yet it the characters never seem to lose believability. You wouldn't disbelieve that a bunch of arrogant generals who hear stories of men fighting demons and other such creatures with nobility and the sweat of their brow and all that would act the way the generals do.  Even here before we really see much of the intrigue and backhanded, ruthless dealings you see a little of their darker side that they hide behind their loud boasts and noble demeanor. They want to hear what the spirit has to say, they want to know how and when they shall receive what the spirit promises them. They are uneasy when the spirit questions how noble and loyal they are. This little hint of things to come really give you a little look into how ‘noble’ you can expect everyone to be.

That little talk they have right before they enter the castle, I where they really begin to through honor to the wind and start giving in to their desires. I’m not quite sure why it is Washizu who becomes the main focus of the movie, but I suspect, due to how every constantly hints at how previous generals have killed themselves here, that location is very important. The fortress seems to be doomed to suffer sieges and assassinations, due to power it represents and the spirits that lurk around it. The way people keep ultimately justify killing each other because other leaders and rulers have done the same to others before warns us of how dangerous and useless it is to assassinate people. This covert, naturally observable moral lesson makes it feel even more like one of those stories from the Phanchatantra.

The assassination rampage is made interesting by the fact that Washizus’ wife is the one who masterminds it, and quite frankly does most of the work. Here is the great general, a plaything of spirits and wives.  The allusion of past traitors who inhabited the fortress makes the whole place feel more ancient and dangerous. The way that we aren't really told what’s happening with the other general also adds to the intrigue and suspicion. I like how ingloriously the other General is done away with. It makes the dealing seem more brutal and t makes the twist which has the Washizus wife deliver a stillborn ore interesting.

Washizu seems to go almost insane, yet holds up well for someone who has alienated so many.  The scene where he returns to the spirit is also quite interesting. The spirit seems to take on forms of other warriors. These warriors wear older styles of armor and older types of weapons suggesting that the spirit has been at his game for quite a while.

The way both the sons end up on the enemy side shows just how flexible politics make people. For whatever reason I had assumed the Washizus’ wife had died and was absolutely terrified when I saw her trying to wash her hands of blood. Even alive that scene was frightening.  The General death at the hands of his own men was very ironic and seemed to deliver a moral lesson. The death itself was very dramatic; it seemed almost unjust to deny such a war hungry man battle. His prolonged death may seem silly, but it made his end feels dramatic, shocking and utterly unexpected.

Overall it was an excellent movie, easily a classic, due to its combination on suspense intrigue, action and drama.