Director: Fumihiko Sori
Two towering figures of Edo-period art meet across a decades-long tale of fate and vengeance in Hakkenden, Fumihiko Sori's 2024 historical fantasy.
What is Hakkenden about?
Novelist Takizawa Bakin begins sharing an epic he's still shaping with his friend, the painter Katsushika Hokusai, and the two men slip into an unusual creative bond as the story unfolds over years. Bakin's tale follows eight warriors, each marked by a jewel, drawn together as if by destiny to break a curse hanging over the Satomi family, a serialized saga built on the idea that good is rewarded and evil punished even in a corrupt world. As Bakin's eyesight fails with the story's ending still unwritten, an unexpected offer from his daughter-in-law changes what finishing the work might actually mean.
Cast & crew
Koji Yakusho plays Bakin opposite Seiyo Uchino's Hokusai, with the two actors carrying the film's central friendship across its long timeline. Tao Tsuchiya, Keisuke Watanabe, and Jin Suzuki appear among the ensemble bringing the eight-warrior legend to life within Bakin's telling.
Context & significance
Hakkenden draws from Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, one of the longest and most influential works of Edo-period Japanese fiction, itself the product of a nearly three-decade writing process not unlike the one dramatized on screen. Director Fumihiko Sori frames the adaptation through the friendship between its real historical author and illustrator, giving a sprawling fantasy epic a grounded, intimate throughline. At nearly two and a half hours, the film has room to move between the two men's quiet conversations and the sweeping, jewel-marked destinies unfolding within Bakin's story.
Where & how to watch
This title is available on K-Time with a Persian dub, though it does not currently include Persian subtitles. Farsi-speaking viewers can watch the dubbed version once logged into a K-Time account; reading about the film on this page requires no login at all, in keeping with a platform built around Farsi-first streaming for Iranian audiences abroad.