Kokuho

First of all, I want to thank Feat Pictures for bringing this magical, lavish, and grand Japanese film to Indonesia. I genuinely couldn’t take my eyes off the screen while watching it. One of my favorite aspects is how carefully the film handles its use of music knowing exactly when to bring in the score and when to let silence take over. Moments of quiet often make the atmosphere hit even harder, and it’s rare to see that level of restraint and precision.

It honestly feels like a shame that the film only received an Oscar nomination for makeup. So many of its technical elements deserve...

When we first meet "Kikuo" (Soyo Murokawa) you get the distinct feeling that his Yakuza father isn't so impressed that he is performing as a kabuki actor at a luncheon. Well that doesn't matter for very long as that meeting is gatecrashed by a rival gang and the young man soon finds himself a fifteen year old orphan in the care of "Hanjiro" (Ken Watanabe) - himself reputedly the finest actor in all Japan. After a failed attempt to avenge his father, "Kikuo" (now Ryô Yoshizawa) and his now new brother "Shensuke" (Ryûsei Yokohama) overcome some initial hostility to become both friends and pupi...