Kurosawa's film is Macbeth moved to Sengoku Japan, with Washizu for Macbeth, Asaji for Lady Macbeth, and the three witches reduced to a single spirit at a spinning wheel in the forest. It keeps none of Shakespeare's language and all of his structure: the prophecy, the murder of the lord, the second prophecy that sounds like safety and is a trap, and the wood that moves. The staging draws on Noh rather than on Western theatre, which is why Asaji is played with a nearly fixed face and a gliding walk.