THE LEGEND & BUTTERFLY

The Legend & Butterfly centres on Oda Nobunaga, the young heir to a fragmented domain, and Nōhime, the intelligent and strong-willed woman he marries to ease tensions between their neighbouring regions. The political union begins badly: the two are opposites who clash constantly and want little to do with each other. Their situation changes when Imagawa Yoshimoto invades Owari with a far larger army. Faced with a daunting gap in military strength, Nobunaga is close to despair, but Nōhime urges him to keep going, and together they work out a plan to face a vastly superior opponent. The film follows the marriage as it develops from a cold arrangement into a partnership shaped by conflict, respect and growing closeness, set against Nobunaga's rise among the warlords of his era and the intrigues surrounding it.

Keishi Otomo directed, with a screenplay by Ryota Kosawa. It followed Otomo's two 2021 Rurouni Kenshin films and preceded his 2025 titles 10DANCE and Hero's Island. Takuya Kimura plays Nobunaga and Haruka Ayase plays Nōhime, with Hideaki Ito, Miki Nakatani, Takumi Saitoh and Hio Miyazawa in supporting roles. The film runs 168 minutes.

Released in Japan in January 2023, it took about 16 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from 736 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 from 25 votes, indicating a modest but generally favourable response.