“Kokuho (National Treasure)” Shuichi Yoshida (2018) Review | Beauty himself

★★★★★+♥ The film was an instant blockbuster, so I had a very high expectation – and it blew it away. A story of a son of yakuza turned kabuki actor who is the beauty itself, a national treasure.

🔽 log 🔽
Kokuho (National Treasure)
Shuichi Yoshida, 2018
国宝 上下
吉田修一
Japan
Read 2025.09


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The film had just come out and was an instant hit, the second highest-grossing live-action movie in history in Japan, so I had a very high expectation - and it blew it away. 

Kikuo, a son of a dead yakuza boss in Nagasaki, becomes an apprentice in a kabuki family in Osaka where he spend his entire childhood learning the way of kabuki with their son, Shunsuke, a thoroughbred whose success and career guaranteed by bloodline.
They are the best friends, the best partners and rivals - of course you know already from this setting that it'd be a good story.

But wait until you read the book, it's not that simple.
Kikuo loves kabuki and has an usual talent, but that's not enough.
He gets thrown into the dark pit of the destiny, and by random chance he gets saved, then fallen, then picked up and admired; he has no life of his own, but he has his genius, dedication and his beauty as an art.

This is a story of how one lives for an art, and as an art, as a "kokuho" living national treasure.

I hope to watch the film soon too, by Lee Sang-il, hands down everyone is praising it.
As of now, it will be released in US and France.
Of course Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama will be beautiful, Ken Watanabe will be powerful, but I want to see Min Tanaka, 80 year old dancer/actor who has the strongest presence on screen in Japan today.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
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●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●

【Amazon.co.jp限定】国宝　オリジナル・サウンドトラック - 原摩利彦 (国宝ロゴオリジナルメガジャケット付)　(Audible Japanese)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
国宝 (上) 青春篇 (朝日文庫)　(Giapponese)