Article from Deadline about Tom hosting Kokuho Screening on Thursday, praising the director, cast, including Ken Watanabe who has worked with Tom in The Last Samurai, the Cinematography, Editing, Costume Design, and more. New photos added.

There was a rarity on the awards season trail Thursday night. None other than arguably the biggest movie star in the world turned up in Culver City to host an FYC screening, and it was for a movie he hadn’t even seen until just recently but one he is justifiably instantly passionate about.

Tom Cruise came in specifically to introduce a special screening of Lee Sang-il’s Japanese International Film Oscar entry, Kokuho, at the Culver Theatre in front of a packed house with many Academy voters present. The film has become the biggest box office success for a live-action film in Japan’s history, earning more than $112 million, a word-of-mouth sensation in the country. The epic drama spans 50 years in the life of a man who aspires the reach the heights in Japan’s rich tradition of Kabuki theater, to ascend to the No. 1 position in the art under the mentorship of the patriarch played magnificently by Ken Watanabe, who you will recall was Cruise’s co-star in 2003’s The Last Samurai. He had written a letter bringing the film to Cruise’s attention recently. The star saw the movie and immediately volunteered to host this special screening on, as it turns out, the eve of voting closing for inclusion on the Academy shortlist for several crafts categories, shorts and documentary and international features.

The hope is Kokuho first makes the list of 15 finalists for International Feature Film, from which the final five nominees will be chosen. GKids, whose first live-action film release Kokuho represents, qualified the movie for all categories with a one-week run in NYC and L.A. in November (it will open its regular engagements in February). The astounding beauty of this film, which premiered at Cannes in May as part of Directors’ Fortnight and later acreened in Toronto, easily would qualify it for such other categories as Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Hair & Makeup, Music and more, if enough voters actually see it.

The three-hour running time might be daunting, but it doesn’t feel long at all, expertly adapted by Sang-il from Shuichi Yoshida’s 800-page, two-volume novel. Clearly its portrayal of these kabuki actors pushing the limits for their art is something that also resonates with recent Honorary Oscar recipient Cruise, who is no slouch when it comes to pushing limits. Take a look at Cruise’s introduction here by clicking on the video below (it is preceded by an ad for The Long Walk):

Tom Cruise introduces KOKUHO with director Sang-il Lee. @TomCruise

KOKUHO opens in theatres starting February 2026. pic.twitter.com/nxjWuy8ozJ

— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) December 12, 2025

After the film ended, I took to the stage with Sang-il and his translator for a compelling conversation about the 15-year journey the filmmaker took to get this film. It’s a true epic in the vein of something you might have seen David Lean make when Hollywood was interested in truly bringing stories of this ambition to the screen. In fact, one notable director in the audience said it reminded him of Lean. In some ways I also thought of parallels to The Godfather, as it tells the story of this 14-year-old who watched his gangster father killed by the yakuza and later is taken under the wing of Japan’s most famous kabuki actor but then must compete with his son in his rise to the top. Cruise knows a good movie when he sees one, and Kokuho is not to be missed.

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