The Movie "Kokuho" Really Is an Amazing Japanese Film

It Was Incredible#

When the end credits started rolling, my first feeling was confusion: “How am I supposed to feel about this movie?”

“That was fun!” isn’t right, and neither is “that was moving.” There wasn’t some big catharsis, either. And it’s not like it’s packed with some profound message (probably).

On the other hand, it wasn’t boring. Even though it’s an absurdly long three hours, I wasn’t bored for a second. I was just overwhelmed by one man’s way of living.

A couple was sitting in the row in front of me, and I found myself worrying about what kind of conversation they’d have afterward.

It’s Not a Hero’s Journey#

I watched while trying to interpret it through the Hero’s Journey framework, and it didn’t work. Even if I watched it many times and understood the whole story perfectly, I don’t think I could fit it into a Hero’s Journey. I can’t come up with what would count as the ordinary world and the special world, and I can’t tell what the “elixir” brought back would be.

So I guess that means it didn’t have that Hollywood-style kind of fun. And yet, I was still totally hooked.

It clearly descends from pure Japanese cinema, yet it genuinely grabs modern audiences who are used to Hollywood, and I think that’s amazing.

So What Makes It Good?#

Honestly, I don’t really know what the reason is. But one thing I can say is that it might be the pacing.

When it comes to Japanese movies, there’s that infamous copypasta about the scene of a “family council, mumbling around a dark dinner table,” where nothing moves the story forward and it’s not visually interesting at all. But “Kokuho” had almost none of that.

While the kabuki is being performed, it’s visually fascinating, and in every other scene the story actually moves forward. This might be the biggest reason I thought, “Wow, and it’s a Japanese movie!”

The acting was also convincing. The protagonists’ obsession with their art, a craving so intense it borders on madness, had a pull that made it impossible to look away. Also, the actor in the early years must be different from the one after that, yet the child actor really felt like the same person, and I wondered how on earth they found him.

Conclusion#

Maybe this isn’t a film to be discussed in binary terms, like whether it was good or bad, or whether it moved you or not. For three hours you’re simply drenched in the staggering life of a man who devoted everything to the path of his art, and overwhelmed by the heat of it. This was less “entertainment” and more an “experience.”

If I’d studied up on kabuki beforehand, maybe I’d have understood it even more deeply, but you really don’t need to, and I think it’s a film you enjoy more without any odd preconceptions.

You should see it in a theater.