Japanese actor-director Kitano says his new film explores homosexual relations in the samurai world

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano says he wanted his new film “Kubi” to show the world of samurai in ways that mainstream movies have rarely done before, by portraying the homosexual, love-hate relationship of warlords in one of Japan’s best known historical episodes. He spoke to a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Wednesday ahead of the Nov. 23 opening of his film in Japan. The story of “Kubi,” or “neck,” shows the 1582 ambush of one of Japan’s best-known warlords, at the Honnoji temple in Kyoto by an aide.