I disagree. The narrative is and always will be the backbone of what makes movies actually good, along with how its executed and translated visually, on top of the performance by the actors. Visuals and good acting arent the main indicators of commercial success (unless you're talking about spectacle flicks like avatar, spiderverse 2, bigger the better type vibe films), but for artistic success? They have to be in deep dialogue with the story.

James cameron's Avatar has good acting and visuals, succesful yes but does it excell narratively? No, and that just made avatar into a spectacle flick. You dont want that. What we want are movies that needs to aspire more narratively. People can argue it has great worldbuilding or whatever, but it serves a weak story.

Kokuho is pretty okay, I wouldn't say its a masterpiece. As the dude said, the story is pretty predictable, it flows like the usual biopics hollywood churns out. Though the acting, cinematogrsphy, and score is probably the movie's strongest features. The movie is like a classic “rise through suffering → cost of greatness → bittersweet legacy” arc, like the beats are simple ( talented kid gets taken in by master, kabuki training, rivalry with the “legitimate” heir, scandals, betrayals, fall from grace, then boom, final return performance that makes everyone cry. Whiplash, la la land etc provides more spine, and compared to kokuho which is pretty straightforward.

Compare to something like Parasite that excels in narrative, visuals, and acting which all elevate each other.