By Variety | Created at 2026-09-04 07:19:22 | Updated at 2026-09-04 08:23:12
1 hour ago
The most remarkable thing about Miike Takashi — whose filmography spans well over a hundred features in a smorgasbord of different genres and styles — is that he has never made a documentary. But now he’s at Venice with doc “Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki.” The films screen out of competition.
“I take on a variety of work,” reflects Miike. “It’s all film — I don’t really differentiate between modes. I wasn’t particularly conscious of taking on documentary film, but I would say it’s a natural progression. [Kabuki artist] Danjūrō turned up in front of me eight years ago and gave me the opportunity to film him. There’s no way I could say no to that kind of opportunity.”
”Shumei” follows the 2022 succession ceremony of the Thirteenth Ichikawa Danjūrō Hakuen, in which the storied kabuki performer takes on his new, prestigious stage name. Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII had previously appeared in Miike’s “Hara-Kiri“ and “Blade of the Immortal.“ “Danjūrō and I go way back,” says Miike. “But our relationship has always been purely actor and director. I view him as a monster, in a way. He has a singular energy, a certain aura, and on top of that, there’s an instability to him as a live performer — he changes day on day. He’s an interesting subject.”
The synergy between filmmaker and subject is plain to see. Danjūrō’s signature glare contains a viscerality reminiscent of iconic Miike protagonists such as Asano Tadanobu’s Kakihara from “Ichi the Killer.“ “When you perform on stage, your emotions surge, but there’s a subtlety to it,” says Miike. “With anger or sadness on stage, you have to follow the rules and the story in those expressions. In performing emotions, your actual emotions are killed. Stage performance is quite different from film performance. When [Danjūrō] acts in my films, he liberates himself”.
International audiences are increasingly acquainted with kabuki theatre, largely thanks to last year’s Academy Award-nominated feature “Kokuho“ — a record-breaking film at the Japanese box office. “[‘Kokuho’] wasn’t made with the full cooperation of the kabuki industry,” explains Miike. “It was successful on its own. And that was likely a big shock to kabuki actors and directors. It isn’t intentional timing, but it definitely helps us release this film”.
Miike had directed stage performance previously in his filmed theater production “Demon Pond“ and horror feature “Over Your Dead Body,“ but he adopted a hands-off approach to documenting Ichikawa Danjūrō’s kabuki engagements. “This time, I didn’t want to give any direction to the stagework,” says Miike. “I wanted it raw, as simple as possible — to directly show who Danjūrō and his son are. Some audiences will surely find the beauty of kabuki pleasing, but capturing that wasn’t my primary purpose. It’s more to make them wonder what kind of people these two subjects are — to pique their interest in seeing them perform in person. If I succeed in that, then I’ll be really happy”.
