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This recommendation is written by Kit Riemer, MD, PhD.

Throne of Blood is mid-career Kurosawa, a pretty safe bet for him: a samurai period piece based on, but borrowing not a single line from, Shakespeare's "Macbeth." It's beautifully shot in luscious black and white with a freaky, atonal soundtrack. It's the perfect movie for retraining millennial smartphone brainrot, because there are long and I mean long periods with absolutely nothing of interest going on, and you stare at first and try to absorb the 16th-century-by-way-of-1957 glorious period piece vibe slash atmosphere, try to put yourself in the shoes/eyeballs of viewers at the time of its release, try to become one with the swishing rain and hurtling horses and frantic male expressions, and you can't, and you take out your phone, and then miss a subtitled line and have to rewind.