UltraSuperNew and Canva found they had a winning idea in April, when they created a parody mafia movie for Takeshi Kitano, Japan’s top celebrity, known for his comedy, action and samurai movies and Gekidan Hitori, the Japanese filmmaker and actor who made a biopic based on Kitano’s life. The 2-minute film introduced Canva’s Make it Unbelievable platform, with Hitori finding out what happens when you don’t believe. It received 80 million views and was shortlisted at Cannes Lions in Film.
Now it has a TV and digital sequel, Takeshi’s Peace Treaty, in which the two actors embody warring feudal lords from medieval Japan, demonstrating the unforeseen consequences of crafting amazing visual materials with Canva, making creativity accessible to all.
There are no English subtitles so here is the plot: After a long battle, the Kitano Shogun family and the Hitori Shogun family put an end to the hostilities. To celebrate the occasion, a proud Kitano shows Hitori a social media post he created on Canva. It is of such high visual standard that Hitori doesn’t believe Kitano made it himself and tells him so. This act of disbelief triggers a reaction from the Kitano Shogun family. Things seem to take a turn for the worse and escalate to a dramatic degree, putting a whole nation’s stability on the line. But then the situation is brought under control again when Kitano shows how easily he created the image using Canva on his smartphone.
Kagan Sen, country manager, Canva Japan, commented, “We are delighted to bring Canva even closer to Japanese audiences through this campaign, once again starring the much-loved Takeshi Kitano and Hitori Gekidan, showcasing how Canva makes creativity and design accessible to all. Our hope is to show that with access to visual communication tools like Canva, anyone can design anything, even without prior experience, whether you’re an individual or member of a team. This campaign is also testament to our commitment of making Canva a locally-relevant brand for the Japanese audiences.”
Takeshi’s Peace Treaty is running on digital and social media channels, YouTube ads, Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook, and on national Japanese TV from August 12.
Where the campaign began:
Credits:
Client: Canva
Creative Agency: UltraSuperNew Tokyo
Production: AOI Pro.
Media Agency: IREP Inc.
