<figure id="attachment_3152905" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3152905" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3152905" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/51456558-kokuho-07092025.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3152905" class="wp-caption-text">Local media reported that the hit film Kokuho has reignited public enthusiasm for kabuki. (AP pic)</figcaption></figure>
TOKYO: Pensioner Shizue Kato didn&#8217;t fancy the new &#8220;Demon Slayer&#8221; anime blockbuster and instead watched &#8220;Kokuho&#8221;, a rare live-action cinema hit in Japan, where animation rules.
&#8220;Many of our friends already watched the film, and they were amazed we hadn&#8217;t yet,&#8221; Kato told AFP as she emerged from a Tokyo cinema on a recent weekday.
&#8220;I read the original novel,&#8221; her husband Kuni said.
Lasting almost three hours, &#8220;Kokuho&#8221; is about two &#8220;onnagata&#8221;, male players of female roles in kabuki, a rarefied form of classical Japanese theatre.
Lee Sang-il&#8217;s film, shot by Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fan, follows the friendship and rivalry of the son of a slain yakuza gangster and a boy born into a kabuki family.
The plot is gripping but markedly more sedate than this summer&#8217;s other hit, the second movie from the &#8220;Demon Slayer&#8221; anime and manga mega-franchise.
That dark fantasy, the first of a trilogy, is about sword-swishing Tanjiro Kamado&#8217;s final showdown to slay demons and make his sister human again in a kaleidoscopic castle.
It has set records, just like its predecessor in the series and other anime films, becoming Japan&#8217;s fastest film to gross ¥10 billion (US$67 million).
It overtook &#8220;Titanic&#8221; to become the third-highest-grossing film in Japan, behind the last &#8220;Demon Slayer&#8221; and Studio Ghibli&#8217;s more highbrow – but still animated – &#8220;Spirited Away&#8221;.
Heartthrobs 
Anime is king in Japan.
Of its top 10 films, only three are live action and just one of those – &#8220;Bayside Shakedown 2&#8221; – is Japanese-made.
The others are &#8220;Titanic&#8221; and the first &#8220;Harry Potter&#8221;.
The same is increasingly true elsewhere – Chinese animated fantasy &#8220;Ne Zha II&#8221; is the highest-grossing film of 2025.
On streaming platforms, Netflix&#8217;s most-watched movie ever is the animated &#8220;KPop Demon Hunters&#8221; and the firm says its viewers watched anime over a billion times in 2024.
But &#8220;Kokuho&#8221; is a hit in Japanese cinemas at least, the fastest domestic-made live-action film to pass ¥10 billion since &#8220;Bayside&#8221; in 2003.
It helps that both the main actors – Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama – are heartthrobs in Japan.
&#8220;Ryo Yoshizawa has this beautiful face,&#8221; gushed Toyoko Umemura, 65, who came with her daughter to watch the film.
&#8220;His acting was also great,&#8221; she told AFP.
Godzilla roars 
&#8220;Kokuho&#8221; has even revived flagging interest in kabuki, according to Shochiku, the entertainment company that manages the famous Kabuki-za theatre in Tokyo&#8217;s Ginza district.
The movie benefitted from its distributor being Toho, the Japanese giant behind &#8220;Godzilla&#8221;, and from the deep pockets of Sony.
Toho&#8217;s internal projections were for a few billion yen in revenues, business daily Nikkei reported, until &#8220;Kokuho&#8221; premiered at Cannes in May.
Then it took off, and Toho used some of the same techniques from its anime hits – not least &#8220;Demon Slayer&#8221; – to generate buzz online and offline.
The film&#8217;s run in theatres has also been extended while word of mouth spreads. Many people went to see it twice.
According to Parrot Analytics, demand – a measure based mainly on actual consumption plus search and social media activity – was 25 times higher than the average film in Japan.
Former Warner Bros executive Douglas Montgomery, CEO of Global Connects Media and a Temple University professor, said anime provides a &#8220;more consistent return&#8221; for studios – not least from merchandising.
&#8220;The film functions as a marketing lead to the (intellectual) property, where the real money is made later. This makes it tougher for live-action films as the revenue streams are fewer and shorter,&#8221; Montgomery told AFP.
&#8220;The lesson (from &#8216;Kokuho&#8217;) for the Japanese film industry is that it can pay to take chances on something different,&#8221; he said, with the warning that reproducing such a &#8220;rare gem&#8221; would be tough.

MatchPoint Times

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