The all-consuming dedication of the Japanese Kabuki artist gets its due in an ornate, decades-spanning spectacular of passion and pain that charts the journey of two young trainees.
There is a timeless quality to onnagata [male actors who play female characters]. They’re in a class of their own. They’re sensual in a sophisticated way and if I may say...the sensuality strikes you unexpectedly.
Kokuho 2025
The world of Kabuki, the elaborately stylised, male Japanese theatrical tradition, is the setting for director Sang-il Lee’s epic melodrama of artistic ambition, rivalry and betrayal. It is an adaptation of a Japanese bestseller by Shuichi Yoshida, and weaves in stunning stagings of classic Kabuki tales that wowed audiences at this year’s Cannes edition.
In 1960s Nagasaki, after the death of his yakuza father, gifted teenager Kikuo (Ryo Yoshizawa) is taken under the wing of famed Kabuki actor Hanjiro Hanai, even though the great performer already has a son, Shunsuke, who has dedicated his life to the art. Together, they train to master renditions in which unrequited love as painful as a bleeding wound runs. In Sagi Musume (Heron Maiden), a heron-girl in the snow is consumed by rage, and in Fuji Musume (Wisteria Maiden), a wisteria branch smitten by a passing man makes a futile exit from a painting, through multiple kimono-changes. Over fifty years, the relationship of the two disciples entwines and twists, and their hearts suffer as much yearning, glory and downfall as their on-stage alter-egos. — Carmen Gray