Monday Night Cinema

Kokuho

(国宝)

The highest-grossing Japanese live action film of all time, Oscar nominee and winner of 10 Japanese Academy Film Prizes (including Best Film), Kokuho is an epic drama about friendship, love and the often punishing cost of fame and ambition in the cutthroat world of elite kabuki theatre.

Aspiring teenage actor Kikuo Tachibana’s life is turned upside down when his yakuza father is killed in a raid by a rival gang. Initially hungry for revenge, Kikuo sets down a different path when he is taken under the wing of iconic kabuki actor Hanai Hanjiro II. Kikuo and Hanai’s son Shunsuke become inseparable. As the years pass, however, their fates diverge, and their friendship is severely tested as they each navigate the ups and downs of their stage careers.