Kokuho. 2025. Japan. Directed by Sang-il Lee . With Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryusei Yokohama, Ken Watanabe, Min Tanaka. DCP courtesy GKIDS. In Japanese; English subtitles. 174 min.
The spellbinding world of Kabuki, the classical Japanese theater art known for its stylized presentation, exquisite music and dance, and lavish costumes and makeup, comes vividly to life in Korean Japanese director Sang-il Lee's Kokuho, which translates to “national treasure.” An exceptionally talented teenage performer is apprenticed to a family widely revered as the standard-bearers of the tradition, but his arrival threatens the position of their young son, who has long been assumed the heir apparent. Spanning five decades, this drama-within-dramas, adapted from a novel by Shuichi Yoshida, is an expansive saga that fuses the transcendent beauty of Kabuki with an interlocking tale of artistic passion, fame, and rivalry.
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