{"id":11099,"date":"2025-11-13T05:38:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11099"},"modified":"2025-11-13T05:38:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T21:38:32","slug":"review-kokuho-movie-review-ryo-yoshizawa-stuns-in-mesmerising-epic-on-japans-kabuki-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11099","title":{"rendered":"Review | Kokuho movie review: Ryo Yoshizawa stuns in mesmerising epic on Japan\u2019s kabuki theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"


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5\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anchored by an astonishing central performance from Ryo Yoshizawa and a fastidious devotion to the traditional art of kabuki theatre, Lee Sang-il\u2019s sumptuous saga Kokuho<\/em> emerges as the finest Japanese film of the year.<\/p>\n

Spanning five decades in the life of a celebrated onnagata \u2013 a male performer who specialises in female roles \u2013 the film chronicles the endless dedication and heart-wrenching sacrifices required to reach the pinnacle of this bewitching art form, and the toll it takes on the individual.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Kokuho<\/em> became the first live-action Japanese film in more than two decades to surpass 10 billion yen (US$65 million) at the box office.<\/p>\n

Adapted from Shuichi Yoshida\u2019s 2018 novel, Kokuho<\/em> \u2013 literally translated as \u201cNational Treasure\u201d \u2013 opens in Nagasaki, circa 1964, with the brutal gangland slaying of a yakuza boss and his family.<\/p>\n

The sole survivor is his 15-year-old son, Kikou (played in these early sequences by Soya Kurokawa), who is taken in by a celebrated kabuki performer (Ken Watanabe) and raised alongside his own son, Shunsuke (Keitatsu Koshiyama as a teenager, Ryusei Yokohama as an adult).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5\/5 stars Anchored by an astonishing central performance from Ryo Yoshizawa and a fastidious devotion to the traditional art of kabuki theatre, Lee Sang-il\u2019s sumptuous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[320,5422,9248,9243,9247,1543,28,9244,9246,6911,9245],"class_list":["post-11099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-epic","tag-japans","tag-kabuki","tag-kokuho","tag-mesmerising","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-ryo","tag-stuns","tag-theatre","tag-yoshizawa","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}