A bunch of unformulated thoughts about Shunsuke and Kikuo and their relationship to each other:
I think it's obvious how much of their relationship in the movie revolves around this idea of doubling and replacement, culminating in their final performance together.
They train together and perform together as a duo, and as a duo they are presented the exact same to the audience. A pair of maidens, a pair of cranes etc. However there is still a separation between them in their names, they perform as the "To-Han" duo, which means that Kikuo's name comes first. This separation becomes clear when Kikuo is chosen to replace Hanjiro in a performance. They each finally verbalize their sadness and envy over their differences (I want to drink a cup of your blood vs I want to be a real actor) and Kikuo taking the stage alone for the first time marks their separation. Hanjiro's choice isn't just about who replaces him (though of course that's a large part of it), whomever he had chosen... it would have marked the end of the the To-Han duo and their shared identity.
So then when they both return to performing together, both having reached their lowest lows (though Shunsuke's low is only alluded to) they begin performing as a matching duo again, but now they are the Han-Han duo. It no longer matters who comes first and they are able to double for each other again.
So when Shunsuke asks to perform as the heroine in Love Suicide (I think that's the title?), he says it's not about envy or being competitive (don't remember the exact words) he just wants his last performance to be of the performance that made him who he was and I do think he's being honest there. Then when they perform together again, it's suddenly in two different roles. Shunsuke as the heroine and Kikuo as the hero and that's the first time it feels like they are properly acting out their love for each other because they're acknowledging each other as a separate individual within the context of loving each other rather than in the context of envying each other. So their love isn't just about their "sameness" and shared traits, it's transcended that. Which is super interesting within the concept of them being soulmates (which is something the film explicitly states).
Basically, I think the film is playing around less with the idea of gender in terms of the parts these characters are playing and more around the idea of individual vs shared identities.
I recently watched Kokuho (National Treasure), a Japanese film about the son of a yakuza boss trying to become the number one kabuki actor in Japan, playing onnagata (male actor in female roles).
It is an amazing film. Beautiful, artistic, tragic. Also the actors are hot.
There are so many wonderfully complex elements to analyse, from the meta storytelling of the kabuki performances, to the ever-swining dynamic between winning and losing between the two leads, and there's also probably something to be said about the sad parts the women play in a film about men acting in female roles. But today little old me is gonna talk about blood because when the premise of the film became clear to me, all the little pieces of the textual integrity puzzle started falling into place and I was *excited*.
So now you get to witness me fangirl about it.
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING pls watch the film it is so good
and DISCLAIMER: I only watched the film once so I have very likely missed some things in my list and the quotes may be off. Also I only have passing knowledge of kabuki and have not watched any traditional kabuki before (ask me about which non-traditional kabuki show I watched).
Here are some depictions of blood and bloodlines in Kokuho.
The first segment of the film ends with the blood of Kikuo's dead father spilling on snow. The film ends with the scenery of unmarred snow that Kikuo finally finds after finally making it to the top of the kabuki world and becoming a 'National Treasure'.
Kikuo chooses to get a yakuza tattoo against his mother's wishes. She had wanted him to go into an honest profession. She did not want him to have the tattoo branding him a member of the Tachibana family. It is witnessing his father's death that spurs Kikuo to get a tattoo as a physical representation of his conviction for revenge. That is perhaps the moment the narrative dooms him. His revenge fails, yet he now has a permanent physical reminder of his bloodline, because he chose his father in that moment. And there are consequences for that in the world of kabuki.
The entire premise of the show is about succession. Kabuki is a family business. Shunsuke comes from a family of proud kabuki actors and is next to inherit his father, Hanai Hanjiro's prestigious title. He has the talent but occassionally slacks off on his training. However, even if he does not work as hard (and even if he eventually grows to hate kabuki), his blood protects him on the stage. This is why just before his biggest performance (where he literally has to live up to Hanjiro's legacy), Kikuo tells Shunsuke he wishes he could drink "a cup of his blood".
On the other hand, Kikuo loves kabuki but was born the son of a yakuza leader. He immediately catches Hanjiro's attention with his performance and is taken into the Hanai family as an apprentice after his family is killed. Though he is talented, trains almost nonstop and loves kabuki with all his being, he is consistently thwarted by his bloodline. Kabuki is a family business, but the uphill battle is made worse by Kikuo's family being yakuza. He tries to deny his blood; ignoring the illegitimate family he had with a geisha i.e. the actual continuation of his bloodline. Yet the traits associated with his blood (his pretty face, his temper, and his physical tattoo) continue to thwart his career, contributing to scandal and accelerating his downfall.
The first show featuring Hanjiro and Shunsuke that Kikuo watches is about a father's strict love for his son (and the story apparently ends with the father kicking his son off a cliff???). This is clear foreshadowing. Hanjiro later choose Kikuo over Shunsuke to replace him in a performance he cannot make due to injury. Kikuo's success from then on leads to Shunsuke running away, meaning it is Kikuo who ends up succeeding Hanjiro's title.
Blood literally spills from Hanjiro's mouth as he dies on-stage midway through the succession ceremony. Despite Kikuo, who literally just inherited his title, being right next to him, his final words are calling out for his biological son, Shunsuke.
Diabetes, a hereditary disease, is what ends the lives and careers of both Hanjiro and Shunsuke, the father and son of the Hanai family.
The Hanai blood is associated with an innate desire for the stage. Hanjiro wants the prestige of succeeding the name of Hanai Byakko. Despite being bedridden, he insists on the ceremony so he can "bloom" on stage once again. Shunsuke hates kabuki by the time he returns to it, yet he does so to support his family - to protect his blood. Even then, he wants to do one last performance with Kikuo before he retires permanently.
In stark contrast, Kikuo does everything he can to reject his blood once he becomes a prominent kabuki actor. He has a daughter with a geisha, but barely pays them any attention, and tries to ignore them completely just before the succession ceremony where he inherits another family's title. The media later catches wind of his illegitimate family, and this contributes to his career's downfall.
It is implied that Mangiku, the 'National Treasure' onnagata, may have followed a similar life trajectory. He dies basically alone, without any family members, in a room that "has nothing beautiful in it". This is in line with how Kikuo basically throws away everything to make it to the top, and become the next National Treasure. And that is why there is no blood in that final snowscape...
I am so surprised that tumblr doesnt have much of a kokuho fandom cause that movie was MADE for this hellsite.
Its 3 hours of a fated homoerotic friendship/soulmate-ship set in the world of an unforgiving historical art form where the characters battle with the idea of family ,destiny, honour , legitimacy , masculinity and the performance of gender , death and fatherhood set against exquisite scenery with the most beautiful background scoring.
It is also possibly the most extraordinary acting I have seen come out of Japan in the last 5 years atleast [ and I say this as a HUGE Drive my car fanatic ]
Kokuho will rip your still beating heart and unmake you down to your atoms. You will feel blasted apart in the best possible way. You will feel like the most exquisite violence has been done to your heart and soul and you love this film for it.
If you care about Art [ and especially if you love Japanese art at all] do yourself a favor and watch the damn movie.
do you ever think about how oz is so culturally linked to queerness that it inspired a gay man to write a book exploring what it means to be wicked vs good with the vibes of someone who lived through stonewall and the aids epidemic baked into its foundation and filled to the brim with queer allegories and subtext so good that it inspired another gay man to adapt said book into a broadway musical that somehow made the relationship between its leads more gay despite removing the explicit queerness between them from the books and adding in a male love interest—in a traditionally female trope/role—in an attempt to create a hetero love triangle but ultimately backfired and instead created the doomed sapphics romantic tragedy of all time akin to the greats like the titanic + romeo & juliet and then said musical based on the queer book rooted in oz’s ties to the queer community went on to get a hollywood movie musical adaptation with an almost entirely queer cast—including its main three leads—with the actresses who play glinda and elphaba explicitly portraying their roles as a lesbian and bisexual, respectively…
I don't wanna finish this show yet... I don't wanna say goodbye to this ghost found family... Seeing Manwol and the other hoteliers move on to the afterlife and leave Chansung and Yoona will be painful af I'm not ready 😭
Omg you know who kiiiind of have satosugu vibes? Jang Manwol and her original life time lover (can't remember the character name but Lee Do Hyun's character). Like the love and betrayal and devotion and painnnnnnn. It's not an exact match but I just remembered them and they gave me the same feeling.
Not sure who I'm addressing this to just needed to get it out of my brain lol
Fiyero finding Elphaba beautiful after changing his perspective, while Glinda has to be told to look at Elphie through the eyes of other Ozians because she genuinely finds her beautiful and doesn't see her as ugly or wicked??? Ohh I'm absolutely sick to my stomach
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