In October 2025, I was alone in Hiroshima. I wandered into a kabuki theater not knowing what kabuki was, and watched a performance of Princess Takiyasha. I didn't speak the language well enough to follow the dialogue. I followed every second of it anyway. Months later I watched Kokuho — Lee Sang-il's three-hour epic about kabuki's bloodline system, the outsider who transcends it, and what it costs — and something clicked. This episode is about the film, the director who made it, and the specific irony of Japan's highest-grossing live-action film of all time being made by someone Japan has never fully claimed as its own.
Required Watching is your curriculum for cinematic literacy. We deconstruct the art and craft of filmmaking to help you become a sharper storyteller.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Required Watching. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Required Watching och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
