Throne of Blood - "A Man Without Ambition is Not a Man"

Film 4 are currently running a Kurosawa season at the moment, and the latest one was this classic retelling of Macbeth. Samurai Commanders Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki), on their way to see their feudal lord Tsuzuki (Takamaru Sasaki), Lord of the Spider Web castle, encounter a fortune-telling demon.

Famous for the final "arrow" scene, I don't think it's as good as Yojimbo or, my favourite, Sanjuro, although the Scottish Play does translate rather well to feudal Japan. Mifune is excellent as the increasingly paranoid and tyrannical Washizu, driven by both his wife (Isuzu Yamada) and his own ambition to fulfil his destiny, whatever the cost, and the whole film has a creepy foreboding quality.

Contrasting with this (through my LoveFilm subscription), and also a story of ambition, is Pain and Gain, a crime "comedy" starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Body builder and personal trainer Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) decides that he wants the high life that he sees some of his clients enjoying.

Although it does have a few funny moments, it's mostly a rather silly and somewhat grim crime caper. Wahlberg isn't too bad, and he's got suitable support in Johnson as a Christian ex-con and Ed Harris as a private eye trying to convince the police to take the whole thing seriously. The real suprise, though, is that it's all true(-ish), making the whole thing rather sad (the protagonists are currently on death row in Florida).