Inu-Oh (犬王)

Inu-Oh (犬王, stylized INU-OH) is a 2021 Japanese animated musical film directed by Masaaki Yuasa, based on Hideo Furukawa's novel Heike Monogatari: Inu-Oh no Maki (平家物語 犬王の巻), which reimagines the life of a real, historically obscure Noh performer of the Muromachi period as a rock-musical pop star.^{1 • 2} It premiered at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti section and was released in Japanese theaters on May 28, 2022.^{2 • 3}

The historical Inu-Oh and the source novel

Inu-Oh was a real sarugaku performer active between the Nanboku-cho and Muromachi periods. In his own time he is said to have been more popular than Zeami, who later completed Noh as an art form, yet not a single one of Inu-Oh's chanted pieces survives and his existence is wrapped in mystery.⁷ Furukawa's novel gives him a partner in Tomona and retells his story as that of two young men who defy fate to forge their own destinies.²

The novel's chaptered, short-sentence style is close to oral literature, and the film's producers found it readily adaptable to the screen.⁸ The film supplies what history does not record: since the original text gives song titles and narration but no melodies, the invention of Inu-Oh's new songs forms the core of the movie.⁷

Production

The project originated when producer Takeuchi Fumie found Furukawa's novel in a bookstore, was struck by Taiyo Matsumoto's cover illustration of Inu-Oh, read it in a day, and wrote a proposal that she brought to Yuasa, with whom she had previously worked on Mind Game and The Tatami Galaxy.⁸ The film was announced early, at the 2019 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and showed work-in-progress material there the following year.⁹

It was built as an international co-production from the start, recruiting overseas investment partners and securing a co-production subsidy centered on Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs; early announcement allowed international pre-sales, reducing dependence on Japanese box-office returns.⁸ The Venice page lists the production as Asmik Ace and Science SARU, with the country given as Japan and China.²

Music. Composer Yoshihide Otomo, known for the drama Amachan, asked for choreography to come first: Yuasa produced rough lyric-and-action movies, Otomo composed to them, and Avu-chan arranged the lyrics and singing to complete each song, a three-way session.^{7 • 10} The soundtrack deliberately introduces electric guitar and other sounds that could not have existed in Muromachi Japan; Yuasa described these anachronisms as the film's fictions, included because they serve the storytelling.¹¹ Specialist supervision covered history (Yoshihiko Sata), Noh (Keizo Miyamoto), Noh performance (Hironori Kamei), and biwa (Yukihiro Goto).⁴

Design and animation. Matsumoto, who had worked with Yuasa on Ping Pong The Animation, created the characters with a skeletal quality evoking Japanese physiques.^{1 • 7} Critics noted the film's many special-effects sequences, including cuts that race backward through time, blurred shadows and light appearing in sightless daylight and pitch black, and the visualization of sound.⁷

Reception

At its Venice premiere in the Orizzonti competition the film was described as a "rock opera."¹² After Venice it screened at Toronto, Busan, Warsaw, Bucharest, Singapore, Rotterdam, Gothenburg, and Berlin Critics' Week, and won the Special Distinction Prize at the Bucheon International Animation Festival.⁹

In North America it received a 91 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of January 9, 2023, and became the first Japanese animated film nominated for the Golden Globe Best Animated Feature since Mirai in 2019, four years earlier.¹³ It was nominated for Annie Awards for Best Indie Feature and Best Writing, and won the Excellent Animation Work Award at the 46th Japan Academy Prizes in 2023.^{1 • 4} Yuasa said he saw little difference between Japanese and overseas audience reactions, with warm responses in both.¹³

References

1. INU-OH, Japanese Film Database (JFDB)
2. Inu-oh, Biennale Cinema 2021, La Biennale di Venezia
3. 犬王, JFDB (Japanese page)
4. 犬王：作品情報・声優・キャスト・あらすじ・動画, 映画.com
5. 犬王, Asmik Ace
6. 犬王 (2022)：映画短評, シネマトゥデイ
7. 「犬王」評論：ポップな歌声響く「夢幻能」の如き怪作, 映画.com
8. もっと多くの人に作品を届けたい！クリエイターの才能を掛け合わせて映画『犬王』をプロデュース, クリエイターズステーション
9. アニメ アスミック・エース, 文化庁資料 (PDF)
10. 犬王, WOWOWオンライン
11. アニメ監督・湯浅政明が『犬王』で考えた想像力の大切さとは, JFF Theater
12. 犬王：作品情報・映画レビュー, KINENOTE
13. 『犬王』ゴールデン・グローブ受賞なるか 湯浅監督、現地会見で意気込み, シネマトゥデイ

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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