In “Kyoto Hippocrates,” Kuranosuke Sasaki plays a country doctor practicing Western medicine in the late Edo Period (1603-1868). | © KYOTO HIPPOCRATES Production Committee

Doctor characters in Japanese movies set in the Edo Period (1603-1868) are usually serious types who serve as beacons of enlightenment amid feudal darkness. One recent example is the earnest young country doctor in “Snowflowers: Seeds of Hope” (2025), who battles smallpox with that radical innovation — inoculations — in the late Edo era.

“Kyoto Hippocrates,” a project that director Akira Ogata took over from his late mentor Kazuki Omori, unfolds in much the same period and a similar rural setting, though this one is located near Japan’s then-capital of Kyoto. But Kuranosuke Sasaki, a versatile actor with a flair for comedy, plays the protagonist, Dr.…