A 'REAL' MOVIE FIGHTS BACK IN ANIME-RULED JAPAN

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.

- NATSUKO FUKUE

“Many of our friends already watched the film, and they were amazed we hadn't yet,” Kato said as she emerged from a Tokyo cinema on a recent weekday. Her husband Kuni added: “I read the original novel.”

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.

The plot is gripping but markedly more sedate than this summer's other hit, the second movie from the Demon Slayer anime and manga mega-franchise.

That dark fantasy, the first of a trilogy, is about sword-swishing Tanjiro Kamado's final showdown to slay demons and make his sister human again in a kaleidoscopic castle.

It has set records, just like its predecessor in the series and other anime films, becoming Japan's fastest film to gross ¥10 billion yen (2.15 billion baht).