Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears.
Direction
Kitano at his most unhinged—directing himself as a scheming monkey-man.
Acting
Nishijima's simmering Mitsuhide steals every scene from Nobunaga himself.
Writing
Dialogue so sharp it'll cut you; historical figures as petty coworkers.
Director
Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano
Hashiba Hideyoshi
Hidetoshi Nishijima
Akechi Mitsuhide
Ryo Kase
Oda Nobunaga
Tadanobu Asano
Kuroda Kanbei
Nao Omori
Hashiba Hidenaga
Shido Nakamura
Naniwa Mosuke
Yuichi Kimura
Sorori Shinzaemon
Kenichi Endo
Araki Murashige
Masanobu Katsumura
Saito Toshimitsu
Kenta Kiritani
Hattori Hanzo
Kaoru Kobayashi
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Ittoku Kishibe
Sen no Rikyu
Susumu Terajima
Hanya no Sahei
Naomasa Musaka
Ankokuji Ekei
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kitano spent over a decade developing this, originally planning it as his final film before his 2019 motorcycle accident scrambled those plans.
The title 'Kubi' literally means 'head'—referencing both the obsession with beheadings and the severed heads warlords collected as trophies, a practice Kitano renders with grotesque comedy.
JP
