‘Kokuho’ Director Lee Sang-il & Star Ken Watanabe On How Japan’s Oscar Entry Revived Moviegoing In The Country – Deadline Screening Series

If there’s a motif running through some awards contenders this season, it’s how niche characters or subjects are finding a wider audience. For example, many perceived risk in a movie about a post-World War II ping pong player (A24’s Marty Supreme), or in a car-chase movie about an anarchist who is separated from his daughter (Warner Bros’ One Battle After Another). Audiences and industry suits didn’t see success coming for those titles, but alas, it did.

Likewise, Lee Sang-il‘s lifting of the veil on Kabuki Theater, the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Kokuho, was a surprise commercial blockbuster in Japan, grossing more than $120 million there and becoming the country’s highest-grossing local title in the past 22 years at the box office.

For modern-day Japanese and American audiences as well, the movie is a window into a mysterious yet ancient dramatic art. Why does Kokuho resonate and grip at a three-hour running time? Pin it to character, character, character, as Kokuho brings to mind the complex protagonists from Oscar-winning movies such as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and even Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. Kokuho follows an ambitious young Kabuki actor, Kikuo (played by Ryo Yoshizawa), who after being orphaned following the murder of his Yakuza clan father, is taken under the wing by an esteemed yet acerbic Kabuki master, Hanjiro Hanai (played by Ken Watanabe). Kikuo is obsessed with his rising fame, and goes to great extents and costs in his life to be what kokuho is translated as: a “national treasure.”

On why the movie connected in its homeland, Lee says, “People watch people in film, and that could be animated or action films. People see and feel the heart of other people in film. I know that there’s all sorts of media out there. I think movie theaters are really special, and there’s something that comes to life in movie theaters, and I think audiences are able to see their own lives reflected in the character.”

Watanabe, Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2004’s The Last Samurai, explained during the Deadline Screening Series event for Kokuho on Friday night at Hollywood’s London Hotel: “The film means something more than box office. Since Covid, many people stopped going to movie theaters in Japan. This film reminds the audience of the joy of watching a movie on the big screen. After this film, attendance for other films have increased. It’s been a big influence on the film industry in Japan.”

Watanabe also shared how he slipped into the role of a Kabuki master thespian, citing the team of Kyoko Toyokawa (hair and makeup), Naomi Hibino (Kabuki makeup) and hairdresser Tadashi Nishimatus as significant collaborators in the actor’s preparation. Yoshizawa trained 18 months in the art and history of Kabuki theater to embody his role as an actor pursuing greatness at all costs in a story of glory and heartbreak that spans decades.

Kokuho is shortlisted at the Oscars in the Makeup & Hairstyling and International Feature Film categories.

Kokuho opens limited in theaters in New York, Los Angeles and key Canadian markets on February 6, with major North American expansion beginning February 20 from Gkids. Though known for anime movies, Gkids is releasing more live-action movies in the near future.

Watch the panel conversation above.