The Apology King (2013)

The Apology King Japanese movie poster 2

The Apology King is a 2013 Japanese movie directed by Nobuo Mizuta and written by Kankuro Kudo. It will premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on August 4, 2013.

Movie info

Original title: 謝罪の王様
Transliterated title: Shazai no Ō-sama
Premiere date: August 4, 2013
Release date: September 28, 2013
Directed by: Nobuo Mizuta
Written by: Kankuro Kudo (screenplay)
Runtime: 128 min.
Eiren rating: G (General Audiences)
Distributed by: Toho

Plot

Yuzuru Kurojima is a professional “apology instructor” who becomes involved in a series of situations of varying importance, eventually leading to a his techniques being used for the ultimate kneeling apology that could save Japan.

Noriko Kuramochi is a child of expatriates who has returned to Japan and can’t seem to learn how to apologize properly. Kurojima takes her under his wing along with an underwear company employee who caused a sexual harassment dilemma, a big-shot actor who has to apologize for his son’s scandal, a long-divorced international lawyer who wants to apologize to the daughter he hasn’t seen in a long time, and a movie producer who causes an international incident when he casts a foreign prince as an extra.

Featured Cast

Actor		Role
	Sadao Abe	Yuzuru Kurojima
	Mao Inoue	Noriko Kuramochi
	Masaki Okada	Takuya Numata
	Machiko Ono
	Gaku Hamada
	Yasuko Matsuyuki
	Yutaka Takenouchi	Masaomi Minowa
	YoshiYoshi Arakawa	Kosaku Wada
	Mari Hamada
	Takehiko Ono
	Katsumi Takahashi	Tetsuro Nanbu

Trivia

Screenwriter Kankuro Kudo was inspired to write the story during a period in which it seemed like Japanese celebrities and public figures were constantly being forced to make public appologies, each seemingly showing more exaggerated forms of contrition than the last (deep bowing, sobbing, etc.)
On May 22, 2013, a "Lie" teaser was released with false claims such as “World record audience numbers achieved”, “Front-runner for Best Picture Academy Award”, “5 Golden Globe nominations”, “1 out of 2 French people in tears!”, “Part 2 and part 3 are already in the works!”, etc.
On Saturday, August 3, 2013 a cross-promotional "manners commercial" began screening at 224 theaters throughout Japan to promote both this film and Kadokawa's Sadako 2 -3D-. Playing on the similarity between "Sadao" and "Sadako", the clip featured actor Sadao Abe sitting in a theater where he’s approached by Sadako holding a cell phone. The premise was that she was using the "Suma 4D" app which interacted with audiences in various ways during screenings of Sadako 2. In keeping with the theme of his own movie, Abe scolds Sadako for the transgression and attempts to give her a lesson in kneeling apologies before he’s shown dressed up like Sadako himself.