
Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki
2026 · Documentary
A look at the succession ceremony in which Ichikawa Danjūrō XIII formally inherited the storied Danjūrō name in Kabuki, Japan’s classical performing art. The film records the behind-the-scenes preparations for the actor’s name-inheritance debut performance.
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Mount Analogue
2025
A live performance by Charlie Jimenez & Sioul Blaphate hosted as a pre-show to Rebel Reel CineClub's 'A Most Unholy Christmas' - a screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain (1973) at Rio Cinema, 17th December, 2024. The performance is a live-theatre and dance piece loosely inspired by Jodorowsky's film and its influenced source Mount Analogue. Through dance, masks, and live-theatre, Mount Analogue navigates a procession of ascension through transforming bodies and shapes. A primordial place of transformation, magic, and symbols.
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Je me soulève
2022 · ★ 4.5
Twenty young actors are brought together for a creation lab to create a collective work at one of the great national theatres. Over a full year, they scour contemporary Québécois poetry to tap into the spirit of the times.
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Merci Zaza - La Folle Histoire de la Cage aux Folles
2023 · ★ 9.5
A look back at "La Cage aux Folles", which ran non-stop for five years, from February 1973, on the stage of the Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris. At a time when homosexuality was considered a crime by the law, Poiret and Serrault achieved great success in boulevard theater. Their success continued on the silver screen, with three Oscar nominations and a Broadway musical. Combining never-before-seen archives from the play, extracts from the film, confessions by Poiret and Serrault, and interviews with witnesses, this is the story of a wild epic.
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The Lion Dance
1936 · ★ 6
Famous kabuki performer Kikugoro IV performs the Lion Dance, in which a young girl is possessed by the spirit of a lion and transforms into the demonic beast.
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The Frozen Moment
1964
Created for the "Esso World Theater" series of films in 1964, it features excerpts from "Bugaku," "Gagaku," "Noh, " and "Kabuki" scenes performed by the well-known dancers, musicians and actors and actresses.
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2024
Liliom, a charismatic early-20th-century carousel operator, loses his livelihood after finding true love and becomes enmeshed in a crime that brings guilt, punishment, and a slim chance at redemption.
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Alice
2022
Written in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a popular success. All British schoolchildren and their parents knew about the escapades of the young Alice. With a new score by Philip Glass, a figurehead of American minimalism, choreographers Amir Hosseinpour and Jonathan Lunn reimagine and reinvent Lewis Carroll's fantastical world. Freed from the original narrative, the dancers of the OnR Ballet play a new gallery of contemporary creatures and characters, joined by actress Sunnyi Melles.
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Zangiku monogatari
1956 · ★ 7
Based on the novel by Shofu Muramatsu, the film is dedicated to the actors of the renowned Japanese Kabuki theatre. Set in Japan in 1885, the story follows Kikunosuke Onoe, the adopted son of a famous Kabuki actor. Kikunosuke’s father teaches him professional acting skills, preparing him to become his successor and continue the acting dynasty. However, Kikunosuke leaves his family, much to his father’s dismay, to hone his craft outside of Tokyo and moves to Osaka.
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Two Portraits of MIYAGINO
2010 · ★ 7.8
In Edo-era Japan, a ukiyo-e artist languishes in his master’s shadow. Creatively stifled, he finds consolation in the company of a prostitute, and becomes entangled in a love triangle. A mystery emerges involving two portraits and the sudden disappearance of the artist Sharaku. Helmed by Cannes-selected director Tatsuji Yamazaki, the film employs kabuki-inspired sequences and stylised sets.
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An Actor's Revenge
1935 · ★ 5.6
An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge.
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Kokuho
2025 · ★ 7.8
Nagasaki, 1964: Following the death of his Yakuza father, 15-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wings of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – and one will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of Kabuki.
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