Comments on: Shogun Macbeth

By: mtheeman

2008-11-20T00:55:50Z

Eliza Damasco
I have never studied Macbeth in depth previously in high school. Therefore, it would be an understatement to say that I did not know what to expect. Reading a synopsis beforehand gave me a gist of the plot and underlying themes of the main character’s unyielding ambition and the story’s overall violence; however, I felt that with entering with an unbiased mind I was able to discover and interpret the play as if it were to be naturally performed in a Japanese setting.  

The scene where the three yojos, encompassing Yujin Macbeth, were controlling their victim’s movements, without touching her, began to insinuate blame on these three supernatural forces for the terrorizing behavior of Yujin Macbeth and her husband. As an audience member, I saw the play’s female main character spin in helplessness, like a rag doll on a rotating table, but feeling utter pity for her loss of control and sanity. One can also feel this sympathy for Yujin Macbeth because of her innocence she claims from the beginning of the play; the beauty that Asian culture possesses in the show is best revealed in this scene, where the character spins delicately to reveal the shape of the beautiful kimono she wears, which stands out against the white cloth that cover the yojos.  

Ultimately, these feelings of mercy take a turn when Yujin Macbeth finally convinces Macbeth to murder Shogun Duncan. We then begin to question if our sinful actions can be justified by visions that evoke reasons of fate or if they are illegitimate methods that characters, like Macbeth and his wife, utilize to recklessly establish selfish power.

For me, it was difficult to find a place where the show significantly needed to instill Japanese culture into the storyline for purposes to enhance the play. However, I did find its appropriateness mostly in the costume design, particularly in the women. The scene where Yujin Macbeth is spelled upon by the yojos calls attention to her vulnerability at that moment, highlighted by her innocent grace and beauty as an asian woman. Her costume contrasts with Macbeth’s red-colored outfits later on, representing his downfall into insanity and violence.

By: mtheeman

2008-11-20T00:40:25Z

While I enjoy Shakespeare, I honestly feel that the stories are so ingrained in most audience’s mind that when re-told it should be done in innovative and interesting ways. Shogun Macbeth excelled at this. Merely by setting the traditional Scottish play in Japan, the stage, cultural backdrop and costumes were striking. Yet moreso than that, the cliché scenes we come to expect in Macbeth were redone. I understand where Tyler is coming from; the presence of the ghost of Banquo has been effective and creepy in many past performances. But the fact that the audience already knows what Macbeth is supposedly seeing allows the director to be creative—and I am very grateful that he was. By removing Banquo from the scene, the focus is on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. His antics seem all the more unnatural and crazed when we see him interact with and become frightened of mere air on the stage. We are sympathizing with the other characters in the scene instead of with Macbeth, which is the case in other performances, as we watch the ghost of Banquo with him. It also allows us to see the role of Lady Macbeth in a stronger light because the audience, like the characters at the banquet, must rely on her composure and abilities to persuade in order to justify Macbeth’s behavior. This is in part why Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness was one of the most profound and convincing I have seen yet. I love that the role of the three witches was expanded. Their symbolism in the story of Macbeth is even more apparent when they also act as his servants, and as Lady Macbeth’s dark spirits, and as the murderers of MacDuff’s family. The three of them, as an entity, became even more “creepy” because they were with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth all the way through their descent into madness, making them seem more powerful. Their presence in the scene before Lady Macbeth kills herself, and their deliverance of this news, adds power to Macbeth’s famous speech.

Word Count: 341
Mary Williams

By: klin

2008-11-19T09:53:33Z

I was also unable to watch Shogun Macbeth so had to settle with “Throne of Blood.” While the movie embodied the plot of Shakespeare’s text quite well, it was spoken entirely in Japanese and the English subtitles were not the Shakespeare lines but a colloquial dialogue. I felt that this must have been one key difference between the show and the movie. While Throne of Blood was powerful in itself – there are images, sounds and settings that a movie can provide which a play cannot – it lacked the lyric quality of Shakespeare’s language. In a way however, that made the story seem more plausible because the audience feels like it was more real whereas if the dialogue were in poetry, it would seem more rehearsed. I cannot comment for the show not having seen it but the movie was pretty raw. There were a few scenes in the movie where it could be said that they were mini episodes of the plot itself. The banquet scene for example where Washizu loses control and his wife calms him down and feeds thoughts into his mind but then he loses it again. The end scene where Washizu’s soldiers turn on him after believing that he is doomed to fate, where he is showered with wave after wave of arrows just depicted how the cycle of treachery, murder and deception just traps you in. Washizu tried and broke free a few times and it seems as though he would escape but then another wave hits and ultimately one pierces his throat. Whatever the movie lacked in regards to Shakespeare’s poetry, it made up for in symbolism and the expression of Macbeth’s themes.

Sorry for the late post but I wanted to post a response to “The Waves” at the same time and I only just got back from seeing it now.

“The Waves” was performed at the Duke Theatre which is the smallest theatre we’ve been to so far – it only seats about 150 people. Right off the bat I’m going to say that this performance was the most incredible, innovative and capturing of all the shows we saw. It used the combination of acting, media and usage of props and lighting to create the perfect marriage to express the “stream of consciousness” which is what Virginia Woolf’s text is famous for. The whole stage area (and I say area because the center was just a line of black tables and on both sides were two shelves full of props and costumes. It was not elevated) is black and in the center there is a big screen where images were projected onto. The most amazing part of this was that all the images except for the one of the ocean were filmed at the same time they were being projected. The actors used boards with patterns on the back to quickly create the image of a room with just the actor or actress’ face showing. The actors would don only fronts of clothing but the filmed effect would make it seem as though they were completely dressed and being filmed in a world far from the black theatre itself. The way the show was choreographed transferred the audience from oceans, to open air, to dining places, to homes, on trains, in cars, in rain, in gardens and dreams. Every sound barring the ocean waves and some instrumental music was created on the stage. If the text currently being narrated spoke of a person, walking or running, coming in doors or whatever was matched with the sound effect made by another actor banging a door or walking on a platform with microphones amplifying the sounds. It was incredible how synchronized it all was and how the actors were able to assemble microcosmic scenes and disassemble them to form others in the space of a few minutes. This fast paced, smooth flowing performance was really able to embody that “stream of consciousness” way the brain thinks; it was able to move from one place to another, one feeling to another, one idea to another seamlessly as the mind does.

By: rlee

2008-11-19T08:15:00Z

Sorry for the late post. I didn’t know I could watch Throne of Blood on the internet and I didn’t have a chance to watch it until today at the Baruch library.

I really enjoyed watching the movie of Macbeth with a Japanese twist. The Japanese take on Shakespeare’s play highlighted an aspect of the original. In the past, when I read Macbeth, I knew that there was an idea of how women could be manipulative, but the idea of a woman’s influence was reinforced in my mind after watching the film. From the book, from what I remember, lady Macbeth had a manipulative hold on her husband, but it wasn’t as strong a hold as what was depicted in the movie with Washizu (parallel character to Macbeth) and Asaji (parallel character to lady Macbeth). In the Japanese film, Asaji is the one to plant the feelings of paranoia within her husband, leading him to question both his superior and his friends. I feel that in the original play, lady Macbeth only acted as the nurturer of Macbeth’s doubts which he formulated on his own, based on the witches’ prophecy.

Another aspect of the movie that stood out to me was the lack of soliloquies. This was the first production of Macbeth I have ever seen, and I expected to see at least the soliloquy with Macbeth - or Washizu - and the floating dagger. This cut-out from the original play would be the only criticism I would have. Not only did they remove a very important feature that exists throughout all of Shakespeare’s plays, but they had scenes that were dragged out for no reason. At times, I was staring at a field of hills with wind blowing up sand for around three minutes at a time.

By: kmaller

2008-11-19T05:26:41Z

As a fan of Shakespeare (I’m a literature nerd) and an Asian horror film enthusiast, I was delighted to hear about Shogun Macbeth. Thankfully, I was not disappointed…to the contrary, this was the best adaptation of a Shakespearean tragedy I’ve ever seen. I loved that every element of the play was adapted to fit with the theme, from the witches speaking in Japanese, to the prevalent use of Buddhist and traditional Japanese themes, to the use of Katanas and traditional Japanese fighting styles.

I was most impressed with both the adaptation and increased use of witches throughout this production. I was SO happy to see the witches portrayed both as comedic and frightening…in many productions, the scary aspect of these characters is lost, and the concept of the witches either seems excessive or silly (Roman Polanski’s film version, for example). The actresses and actor were brilliant with their body movements and speech - they crawled, they enticed, and they brooded, but were bawdy when they needed to be. Unlike Tyler, I thought the use of Japanese added to the tension of the witch scenes. I thought the language barrier enhanced the supernatural aspect of their power - one of the major conflicts in Macbeth is whether or not the prophecy is real, or whether Macbeth makes it real. I loved that this director played on this conflict by using Japanese, thereby making the witches actions largely incomprehensible. Also, while many directors choose to make this point entirely ambiguous, this director enhanced the role of the witches spells, making it clear that supernatural elements were prevalent. I loved that the witches were also the assassins and Macbeth’s henchmen, and I ABSOLUTELY loved their scenes with Lady Macbeth - how they manipulated her without touching her, and how they narrated through the “out damn spot” scene.

By: glue

2008-11-19T04:05:25Z

Walking into Shogun Macbeth, I had no idea what to expect from the Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous play. As the play progressed, my recollection of the play slowly returned to me as I realized the subtle changes of this production. Although the setting of the play was vastly different from the original, the story line seemed to flow just as easily in Japan, replacing wine with sake, and swords with katana. The most striking difference in this production to me were the changes that were made to the integral witches of the story. In Shogun Macbeth, the witches were dressed in traditional japanese Kabuki theatre makeup and had arbitrarily colored hair and wore white clothing. This mirrors the difference between Japanese and English culture and their beliefs concerning death and goodness. In eastern cultures, the color that represents death and evil is usually white and the color that represents heavenly things is black whereas in western cultures, this is the opposite. This manner of dress that the witches wore reflect the subtleties in the production. Throughout the play, the witches, who were known as yojo, regularly changed their style of dress while performing different acts, such as dressing in shinobi outfits while killing Banquo. This vastly different take on the classic shakespearean play was quite enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to my peers. I believe that this production was more effective in portraying this tragedy than many other productions than I have seen.

By: tnunez

2008-11-19T03:56:46Z

As Macbeth is one of my favorite plays, I was really curious about how a Japanese interpretation of it would be produced. The three Yojos were terrifying and accurately depicted the supernatural in Shakespearean plays. That being said, I was not mad about the set design. While I understand the limits of the stage, I agree with Tyler in that I just wish they had utilized props more often. The red light that went off whenever somebody was murdered was an interesting touch, though. I don’t have any complaints about the acting, but the performance that stood out the most was that of Yugin Macbeth. The actress that played her was particularly convincing throughout the play, from her seductive manipulations of Macbeth to murder Duncan, to her violent breakdown and eventual suicide. I also liked the fact that Shogun Macbeth remained mostly true to the text, while still managing to incorporate Japanese culture into it, such as Macbeth asking for sake instead of wine. The comedic relief of the porter scene was also nicely conceived. My favorite effect of Shogun Macbeth was when the room would plunge into darkness between scenes and Biwa Hoshi would appear. It was a haunting interlude. On the whole, Shogun Macbeth was an unique, enjoyable fusion of two very distinct cultures.

By: Sharon Steinerman

2008-11-19T02:58:11Z

One of the major ideas of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is that it is our choices that define who we are. The character Macbeth sets himself up for his eventual downfall when he, goaded on by his wife, chooses to act on the witches’ prophecy and kill Duncan in order to assume the throne. Lady Macbeth also chooses to set store by the prophecy, and is, in fact, the guiding hand in Macbeth’s ascension to the throne, pushing him to murder Duncan. Banquo, on the other hand, who has just as much of a stake in the prophecy as Macbeth, chooses not to act on it in any way, claiming, rightly so, that belief and action to set the events of the prophecy in motion will lead to nothing but harm. Each of these three characters chooses to act or not act on the prophecy in some way, but it cannot be said that the witches actually cause the events of the play to unfold. The characters make their own decisions. This is one of the main points of the play.
In Shogun Macbeth, however, this whole idea of our decisions shaping us is, unfortunately, lost in the telling. In what I consider to be a most erroneous decision by the director (or perhaps the writer who adapted Shakespeare’s work), the witches are far more present, and have a much greater hand in shaping the events that unfold. They are physically present, though sometimes in disguise or invisible, in many scenes that they have absolutely nothing to do with in the original play. They are portrayed almost as puppeteers, plucking the strings of their human marionettes, leading them to their eventual downfalls. One scene in particular that struck me was Lady Macbeth’s famous “unsex me” soliloquy, in which she declares that she will put aside all of her feminine weakness so that she can help her husband become king, no matter the cost. In Shogun Macbeth, however, Lady (or “Fujin”) Macbeth is by no means alone during this speech. The witches surround her, invisibly. They guide her every action. When they spin their fingers, Lady Macbeth’s body is physically spun around in circles. As they move, she imitates their motions. It is almost grotesque, how like a puppet she is to them. It is obvious, then, that in this interpretation of Macbeth, the witches are literally controlling the characters. There are further instances of this throughout the play, where the witches control and deceive Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, most notably in Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, where, again, she is merely unconsciously imitating every action the witches themselves perform. She is reduced from an exciting, villainous, even feminist character into merely a doll, a toy for the amusement of the witches. No longer is Macbeth about choices…it becomes just another clichéd tale of supernatural possession and destruction. Perhaps this worked for some people. Perhaps it added an exciting layer to the story. For me, however, Shogun Macbeth was deeply disappointing, at least in this respect.

By: ahum

2008-11-19T02:15:44Z

Shogun Macbeth was a spectacular and unique rendition of the popular Shakespeare play. Set in feudal Japan, it added a different flavor to the typical Western settings of “normal” plays. For the most part the production was enacted the same way the play was written, but with the addition of some Japanese flair, incorporating the language, the customs, and garments of the Japanese. The Japanese aspect I liked most was the portrayal of the witches. They were non-conventional forms of witches called yojos, with white robes, white painted faces and hair fit for a demon fox, rather than the standard black robe, pointy hat, wart-on-the-nose witches. Their presence was spooky in a way that was effective in raising alarm and fear within the audience. They moved and danced around disturbingly and made bloodcurdling cries that gave me goose bumps. They were much more effective, in my opinion, than the witches that are usually portrayed in other reproductions of the play. For a nonprofit company, the production had pretty impressive stage effects, with the different colored strobe lights, the fog machine, the illuminated Buddha, and the eerie branch on the side. I also loved their intricate costumes, one because the kimonos had many beautiful intricate designs, and two, because it was cool to see Macbeth enacted in a Japanese setting.

In terms of the way they decided to reproduce the play, I think it is significant that they included the sexual relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This was something put in that might not have been obvious in the play itself, but was adapted here to show a possible interpretation of the relationship between the couple. Also, the actor that played Macbeth was a lot more hysterical and jolly than I imagined. Though his performance was comical, the actor was less brooding, malicious and corrupted as he is portrayed in the play. I felt like this toned down the wickedness and immorality that is supposed to characterize Macbeth’s persona as he gets consumed by ambition.

By: silyas

2008-11-19T02:02:57Z

The scene that I found most intriguing in both “Macbeth” and Throne of Blood occurred during Act III Scene IV of the play. In this scene, Banquo’s ghost appears and haunts Macbeth during a banquet, while the guests are oblivious to what is occurring. The scene is not only one of the more entertaining segments in the play, but was one of the more memorable moments of the movie. During this portion of the movie, Washizu becomes extremely terrified and shouts, “You are Miki” to the spirit that is occupying Miki’s seat. The audience becomes aware of the subject of Washizu’s terror as the camera view slowly expands and the image of the ghost becomes visible. The ghost remains peacefully seated as Washizu runs throughout the room shouting incessantly, until his wife yells for him to calm down and explains to the guests that he has drunk too much. Confusion is evident Washizu’s face as he returns to his position and tries to convince himself that he is drunk and imagining the appearance of a ghost. Lady Washizu states that she is hopeful that nothing bad has happened to Miki, and states that enemy raiders in the province could be the reason of his absence. Shortly after, the ghost reappears and Washizu tosses his plate at the phantom as he stumbles across the room. He draws his sword and shouts “ If you hate me, why not draw your sword?” Washizu then proceeds to attack the area in which he sees the ghost, as the guests rise, startled and confused. His wife again explains to the guests that he is drunk and leads them out of the room. After the guests have left, Lady Washizu chides her husband by stating, “ Well done my lord, you want to rule a nation but a ghost frightens you.” The scene ends with a warrior entering the room with the head of Miki wrapped in a cloth. This scene was adapted very well in the movie, because it portrayed the guilt of Washizu, which was also felt by Macbeth, but did not occur in the same manner or dialogue as the movie. For instance, Macbeth is told of Banquo’s murder at the beginning of the scene, while Washizu was informed at the end. The Japanese touch is also portrayed as Washizu grabs his samurai swore to attack the spirit, while the honor of battle throughout cultures remains intact as Washizu first challenges the spirit to a fight, then proceeds to attack. The strength and determination of Lady Macbeth is clearly seen in Lady Washizu, as both women deride their husbands for acting foolishly because that “is not how a ruler acts.” I felt this scene embodied the movie as a whole, a successful adaptation of Macbeth with a mixture of Japanese culture with different dialogue and acting.