Five years after stepping down from his position at Office Kitano and with a new novel in his sights, celebrated actor and filmmaker Takeshi Kitano is now ripe for the upcoming ceremony with what looks to be his final bow with the new period action epic, Kubi. The film, based on Kitano’s 2019 novel, was announced a few weeks ago with a poster introduced ahead of the film’s premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, with Kitano directing from his own script and Kadokawa handling the film’s international sales, as well as its local Japan release this Fall.
Kitano devoted 30 years to what became his lifework, researching and writing both an original novel and screenplay depicting his outrageous theory about the ambush at Honno-ji Temple, one of the great unsolved mysteries in samurai history. Focusing equally on ninja and foot soldiers, missing from traditional samurai narratives, and on the warlords battling for supremacy, Kitano depicts their impossible dreams and untamed passions to animate his grandest entertainment, while reinventing the epic samurai film.
Takeshi heads up the film’s large ensemble cast along with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Kenichi Endo, and many, many more. Alas, after years of hinting at certain inspiration from the likes of Kurosawa and Shakespeare, we now have our first teaser trailer which rightly points to these in glorious, brutal and perfect Kitano form. Indeed, this is a war movie, and with a title like Kubi, heads will certainly roll.
