What is Kishotenketsu?

As No Film School’s resident screenwriter, I am always looking for new ways to approach a story. Recently, I was scanning Reddit and ran into this post on Kishotenketsu.

Truth be told, I had no idea what this word meant, so I was pleased to see the post had a video that came with it to explain the idea.

Today, I want to bring that explanation to you. We’ll go over Kishotenketsu, get its definition, show its breakdown, and talk about how you can be inspired by it.

Sound good?

Let’s dive in.

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Kishoutenketsu Definition

After some intense Googling, I learned that Kishōtenketsu (起承転結) is a four-part story structure widely used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese storytelling. It’s widely recognized as “writing without conflict”.

And it’s very different than what we do in the west.

The Four Acts Inside Kishōtenketsu 

Kishōtenketsu has four parts that get used to outline a story. They are:

• Ki (起): Intro: Sets the scene, introduces the characters, and establishes the setting.
• Shō (承): Development: As events unfold within the plot. The characters and setting are developed in more detail. And we understand them more.
• Ten (転): Twist: A surprising turn of events happens that can shift perspective or give an unexpected revelation.
• Ketsu (結): Conclusion: The story ends in a way that is also a twist, or a turn that gives a new perspective or something overarching to wonder about.

How Is this Different Than What Western Writers Do? 

So, in Western writing, we’re much more interested in conflict, obstacles, and conclusions. We usually try to tell stories about people dealing with things and tackling large goals.

Kishōtenketsu narratives don’t necessarily revolve around a central conflict that needs to be resolved. They create a specific mood or exploring themes through implication rather than direct confrontation.

Western endings are usually pretty clear cut as well. We sort of know how it ends and then walk away with something to think about.

But in Kishōtenketsu, the ending is more open. There’s no clear resolution, only more questions about what happened and what we watched.

Kishōtenketsu In Film and TV

In the video I posted above, the author shows how Kishōtenketsu plays out in the movie Parasite. I thought that was an excellent example.

In that movie, we set the scene of this poor family trying to social climb. and the deeper we get into the story, the more we understand their circumstances and how they need the rich people to survive.

Then we get our twist, as we learn our family are not the first to do this, and there’s someone living in the rich family’s basement.

At the end, we don’t have a clear resolution. We just have violence and death, and the world continues onward.

There are probably other examples you can think about which follow this structure. I think Spike Jonze’s Her has something similar, where we jsut steep in the world and characters, with the AI love story being the twist, and at the end we just see a guy who has finally gotten over a breakup.

A lot of anime also follows this formula. It focuses on mood, atmosphere, and interconnectedness rather than a core central conflict we follow closely.

I’m not the best when it comes to watching anime, but if you have examples you think I should check out, write in and tell me about them.

This is a pretty cool way to look at a story, and I think could be a great way to brainstorm, even if you wanted to add a little plot yourself.

I’m definitely going to experiment with Kishōtenketsu in my next spec, and see where it takes me.

Let me know what you think in the comments.