is a 2023 Japanese historical ''

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

'' film written, directed and edited by

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

, who also stars as

Hashiba Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' ( feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Co ...

(Toyotomi Hideyoshi). The film is based on the novel of the same name, which was released in 2019 and written by Kitano. The film depicts the historical event of the ''Honnō-ji'' incident, which took place in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

in 1582. Kadokawa Corporation produced the film and co-distributed it in Japan with

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

. The film also stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as

Akechi Mitsuhide , first called Jūbei from his clan and later from his title, was a Japanese ''samurai'' general of the Sengoku period best known as the assassin of Oda Nobunaga. Mitsuhide was a bodyguard of Ashikaga Yoshiaki and later a successful general under ...

Ryo Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...

as Oda Nobunaga,

Tadanobu Asano , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in '' Electric Dragon 80.000 V'', Kakihara in '' Ichi the Killer'', Mamoru Arita in '' Bright Future'', Hattori Genosuke in ''Zatoichi'', Ke ...

Kuroda Kanbei , also known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the late Sengoku through early Edo periods. Renowned as a man of great ambition, he succeeded Takenaka Hanbei as a chief strategist and adviser to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Kuroda became a Christian w ...

, and Nao Omori as

Hashiba Hidenaga , formerly known as . He was a half-brother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the most powerful and significant warlords of Japan's Sengoku period and regarded as 'Hideyoshi's brain and right-arm'. He was also known by his court title, . He promot ...

. It had its world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section at the

76th Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film '' Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top p ...

on 23 May 2023. It was released in Japan on 23 November 2023.

Cast

* Hidetoshi Nishijima as

as Oda Nobunaga *

Nakamura Shidō II , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese kabuki and film actor. Life Born in Tokyo, the son of kabuki actor Nakamura Shidō I, young Nakamura made his kabuki debut at the age of eight. He took the name Shidō the following year, following ...

as Naniwa Mosuke *

* Nao Ōmori as

*Yūichi Kimura as Sorori Shinzaemon *

Kenichi Endō is a Japanese actor and writer. He also worked as a narrator for many documentaries, both on television and film. He is best known for his roles in '' Visitor Q'' (2001), ''Crows Zero'' (2007), ''Crows Zero 2'' (2009), and '' The Raid 2: Beran ...

Araki Murashige was a retainer of Ikeda Katsumasa, head of the powerful "Setssu-Ikeda clan" of Settsu Province. Under Katsumasa, Murashige sided with Oda Nobunaga following Nobunaga's successful campaign to establish power in Kyoto. Military life Murashige be ...

*Masanobu Katsumura as

Saitō Toshimitsu was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period. He was a castle commander of Kuroi Castle. He was a retainer of Inaba Ittetsu, but later joined Akechi Mitsuhide. Oda Nobunaga was not pleased that Toshimitsu chose to work under Mitsuhide, and i ...

* Susumu Terajima as Sahei *

Kenta Kiritani is a Japanese actor and singer. He was born in Kita-ku, Osaka. Filmography Films TV series Internet series Dubbing *'' The Legend of Tarzan'', Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (; born August 25, 1976) is ...

Hattori Hanzō or ''Second Hanzō'', nicknamed , was a famous Ninja of the Sengoku era, who served the Tokugawa clan as a ninja, credited with saving the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu and then helping him to become the ruler of united Japan. He is often a subje ...

*Naomasa Musaka as

Ankokuji Ekei , he was a military monk and descendant of the Takeda clan of Aki province. He served Mōri clan and later Toyotomi clan. Biography Although it is certain that he was from the Aki Takeda clan, there are various theories about his birth year and ...

*Makoto Ōtake as Mamiya Buryō *

Kanji Tsuda is a Japanese actor. Career Tsuda appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's '' Tokyo Sonata''. He co-starred in Sion Sono's ''Guilty of Romance'' with Megumi Kagurazaka. Filmography Film * '' Sonatine'' (1993) * ''119'' (1994) * '' Kids Return'' (1996) ...

as Tamezō * Yoshiyoshi Arakawa as Shimizu Muneharu *Kan'ichirō as

Mori Ranmaru , also known as Mori Naritoshi (森成利), was the son of Mori Yoshinari, and had 5 brothers in total, from the province of Mino. He was a member of the Mori Clan, descendants of the Seiwa Genji. Biography From an early age, Ranmaru was an ...

*Jun Soejima as

Yasuke Yasuke ( or ) was a man of African origin who served as a retainer and weapon-bearer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga. In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, Visitor of Missi ...

* Kaoru Kobayashi as

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

Ittoku Kishibe , born , is a Japanese actor and musician. Career He originally entered show business as the bassist for the Japanese rock bands, The Tigers and Pyg, but later switched to acting. The veteran of over 115 films, he won the Best Actor Japanese Ac ...

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on ''chanoyu,'' the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects ...

Production

This film was conceived around the same time as Takeshi Kitano's early directorial work '' Sonatine'' (1993).

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

was said to have high expectations, stating that "If Kitano were to make this film, it would be a masterpiece on par with '' Seven Samurai''." The reason it took Kitano 30 years was explained as follows: "Recently, I've been able to gather talented actors in the Kitano-group, and when such excellent actors come together, I felt like it was finally time to make it... and that's how it finally came to fruition," Kitano said. This film was produced with a budget of 1.5 billion yen, with funding from

Kadokawa Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

, and it was shot between April and September 2021. On August 3, 2022, Weekly Shincho reported that despite the film's editing being nearly 90% complete, there was a dispute between Kitano and Kadokawa over the contract, resulting in a suspension of production. According to the report, Kadokawa sought additional funding from Netflix, but Kitano demanded a portion of it for himself. It was also reported that Kitano was unaware of this funding request and became suspicious, wondering if there were other hidden agendas involved. On the same day, Kitano explained the situation on his official website, stating, "Due to Kadokawa's refusal to finalize the contract, I had no choice but to halt the production. Some staff members were also dissatisfied with the contract terms, and it seems that there were people who hadn't signed contracts until the end of the shoot." He further clarified, "It's not about money. The contract proposed by Kadokawa was extremely one-sided, and I haven't made any unreasonable demands. If they agree to the contract, I will resume the editing work."

Release

On April 15, 2023, it was announced that the film would be released in Japan in the autumn of the same year, and confirmed its date of November 23, 2023 after the Cannes premiere. The film was selected to be screened as part of the Cannes Premiere section of the

, where it had its world premiere on 23 May 2023.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 67 out of 100, based on 7 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{Takeshi Kitano 2023 films 2020s Japanese films Samurai films Films directed by Takeshi Kitano Cultural depictions of Akechi Mitsuhide Cultural depictions of Hattori Hanzō Cultural depictions of Oda Nobunaga Cultural depictions of Tokugawa Ieyasu Cultural depictions of Toyotomi Hideyoshi 2023 LGBT-related films Japanese LGBT-related films