<\/p>\n
As part of Variety\u2019s Screening Series, \u201cKokuho\u201d production designer Yohei Taneda and producer Chieko Murata joined Variety\u2019s co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton for a candid conversation about the making of the Japanese drama on Oct. 26 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Murata kicked off the conversation explaining what Kabuki theater offers Japanese audiences by having it as the film\u2019s backdrop and discussed their desire to center a story about a young boy who, after his father\u2019s death, develops into a gifted performer after being adopted by a famous Kabuki actor.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFor Japanese people, especially the younger audience, and a regular U.S. audience, it\u2019s similar,\u201d Murata began. \u201cThey have never seen Kabuki and don\u2019t know that much about it. It\u2019s a discovery. Also, they don\u2019t think of it as a movie about Kabuki. It\u2019s a movie about art, two actors and the life of actors.\u201d<\/p>\n Taneda touched on the challenges of recreating the different periods of Japanese culture presented throughout the film, in addition to showcasing the elaborate Kabuki styles.<\/p>\n One of the biggest obstacles that Taneda faced was having to build a Kabuki stage from scratch on a sound stage for the last quarter of the film.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were very cognizant of being able to use what we see as is,\u201d Taneda said. \u201cGenerally, with my approach, all the different sets have elements about them that would be slightly different from a real Kabuki stage. One of the challenges is that you cannot rent a Kabuki stage or theater in Japan that actually exists.\u201d<\/p>\n Murata, who joined as the film\u2019s producer about five years ago, said she resonated with the film\u2019s themes of life, sacrifice and loneliness. \u201cIt\u2019s this complex pressure and life of an artist that no other people can understand,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people could resonate with that. That\u2019s universal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKokuho\u201d stars Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryusei Yokohama and Ken Watanabe. As the conversation ended, Taneda and Murata praised the cast for their performances. Murata said she was inspired by Watanabe\u2019s focus and determination to tell the story while on set.<\/p>\n Taneda admired Yokohama and Yoshizawa\u2019s ability to bring depth and complexity to their characters while also introducing Kabuki to a new generation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were able to be interpreters of Kabuki to the current generation,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough their friendship and lives, Kabuki all of a sudden became very accessible to this new younger crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of Variety\u2019s Screening Series, \u201cKokuho\u201d production designer Yohei Taneda and producer Chieko Murata joined Variety\u2019s co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton for a candid conversation about the making of the Japanese drama on Oct. 26 in Los Angeles. Murata kicked off the conversation explaining what Kabuki theater offers Japanese audiences by having it as the film\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2124318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[367996,403486,403484,382759,403485],"class_list":["post-2124317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-candid-conversation","tag-chieko-murata","tag-kabuki-theater","tag-ken-watanabe","tag-yohei-taneda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\u2018Its-a-Movie-About-Art-Two-Actors-and-the-Life.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124319,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124317\/revisions\/2124319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2124318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}