(Sang-il Lee, Japan 2025, 174 min., DCP, Japanese with English subtitles)
Japan’s official selection to the category of Best International Film at the Academy Awards, and a nominee for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Kokuho (translated as “national treasure”) is a lush epic of crime, betrayal, and Kabuki. In 1964 Nagasaki, when his father, the leader os a yakuza gang is murdered, fourteen-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wing of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, Kikuo decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. Across decades, the two young men grow and evolve together - from acting school to the grandest stages - amid scandals and glory, brotherhood and betrayals, as each pushes to become the greatest living Kabuki master. Kokuho is a film of awe-inspiring scope and sumptuous beauty, and a monument to the artists who would sacrifice everything in the pursuit of the ultimate performance.