A 'real' movie fights back in anime-ruled Japan

Tokyo: Pensioner Shizue Kato didn t fancy the new Demon Slayer anime blockbuster and instead watched Kokuho , a rare live action cinema hit in Japa...

Tokyo: Pensioner Shizue Kato didn't fancy the new "Demon Slayer" anime blockbuster and instead watched "Kokuho", a rare live action cinema hit in Japan, where animation rules.

"Many of our friends already watched the film, and they were amazed we hadn't yet," Kato told AFP as she emerged from a Tokyo cinema on a recent weekday.

"I read the original novel," her husband Kuni said.

Lasting almost three hours, "Kokuho" is about two "onnagata", male players of female roles in kabuki, a rarefied form of classical Japanese theatre.

Lee Sang-il's film, shot by Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fan, follows the friendship and rivalry of the son of a slain yakuza gangster and a boy born into a kabuki family.