If there's one thing I never expected to see in a bunraku play, it was a disco ball. Similarly, a scene in which the leading lady has her nails done by a bevy of kimono-clad attendants.
But if you're the celebrated writer-actor-director Koki Mitani, you can get away with a lot — even in a work of traditional Japanese puppetry.
Mitani, 53, is renowned in Japan and abroad for his films and TV shows, as well as for his original works and adaptations of famous plays in just about every entertainment medium.