<\/p>\n
Directed by Lee Sang-il<\/a> and starring Ken Watanabe<\/a>, the drama centers on Kabuki, a traditional art form long viewed as commercially challenging, yet has struck a deep chord with Japanese audiences while also gaining traction overseas.<\/p>\n Set initially in 1964 Nagasaki, the film follows 14-year-old Kikuo<\/a> (Ry\u014d Yoshizawa<\/a>) who, after his yakuza father\u2019s death, finds himself taken under the wing of a famous Kabuki actor Hanjiro (Watanabe<\/a>). Alongside the actor\u2019s son Shunsuke<\/a> (Ryusei Yokohama<\/a>), Kikuo dedicates himself to the centuries-old theatrical tradition, with their relationship evolving through decades of performances \u2013 from acting school to prestigious stages \u2013 against a backdrop of scandals and glory, brotherhood and betrayals.<\/p>\n Lee says the recognition carries weight well beyond awards momentum.<\/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 www.imdb.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A nearly three-hour film about Kabuki was never supposed to be a box office juggernaut, but \u201cKokuho\u201d has defied expectations to become Japan\u2019s top live-action hit \u2014 and an Oscars international feature shortlister. Directed by Lee Sang-il and starring Ken Watanabe, the drama centers on Kabuki, a traditional art form long viewed as commercially challenging, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2235852,"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":[25177],"tags":[25538,31714,21751,22556,21993,22860,21912,21738,24141,22205,21913],"class_list":["post-2235851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-actors","tag-actresses","tag-celebrities","tag-directors","tag-films","tag-hollywood","tag-movies","tag-news","tag-stars","tag-television","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ken-Watanabe-and-Lee-Sang-il-on-\u2018Kokuho-the-Kabuki-Gamble.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235851","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=2235851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235853,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235851\/revisions\/2235853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2235852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}