Director Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) has been involved in Japanese cinema forever. Much of the film satirizes popular Japanese culture, such as Ultraman or Godzilla and even the Zatoichi character that Kitano himself would go on to play eight years later. Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after Johnny Mnemonic in 1995. This was followed in 2007, by his second surrealist autobiographical film Glory to the Filmmaker! Find Outrage: Way of the Yakuza by Takeshi Kitano at Amazon.com Movies & TV, home of thousands of titles on DVD and Blu-ray. Shop high-quality unique Kitano T-Shirts designed and sold by artists. Takeshi Kitano, Any attempt to unpick this gordian knot must begin some twenty years before Kitano achieved international success, when he was one half of stand-up duo Two Beat, a titillating and iconoclastic. Takeshi Kitano (北野 武, Kitano Takeshi, born 18 January 1947) is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. Current affairs pundit or blood-lusting hitman? Beginning and ending with abrupt flashes of violence, the film’s entire middle is devoted to yakuza at play. Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country. Kitano was born into a working-class family in Tokyo. Kitano had also become a popular television host. Takeshi Kitano, HERO DAILIES: Essential culture, curated daily, Still, Kikujiro (1999) dir. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda.[1]. Hirose is a jovial senior and takes things in a laid-back fashion. Another of his shows is Sekai Marumie TV ("The World Exposed"), a weekly collection of various interesting video clips from around the world, often focusing on the weird aspects of other countries. The 1995 release of Getting Any? [8] Some autobiographical elements relating to his manzai career can be found in his 1996 film Kids Return. demonstrates the director’s deft handling of tenderness and pain, juxtaposing not just violence and affection, but serenity and chaos through the split setting of downtown Tokyo and the beach. If the analogy wasn’t made obvious enough by the fact that Uehara appears at the exact halfway point of the film to displace Masaki as the lead, then his explosive entrance makes it even clearer. Western audiences might already be familiar with Kitano through. Having grown up the youngest of four brothers, with an abusive father in a working-class area of Tokyo, Kitano idolised baseball players and local yakuza. Coastal tranquility once more offers a refuge from the crime-riddled dreariness of Tokyo and again Kitano stars in a violent role, this time as a merciless yet jaded yakuza gangster, sent to the beach at Okinawa to resolve a dispute between two warring clans. Takeshi Kitano, Hana-bi (Fireworks) by Takeshi Kitano, 1997, Still, Sonatine (1993) dir. Why this might not seem so easy. The reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitano's material, which was much more risqué than traditional manzai. Kitano said that after playing comedy clubs he would be invited to drink with yakuza, who would tell him stories about the big crime bosses. Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit, "Asakusa's resilience rubs off on France-za theater, cradle of postwar pop culture", "Sanma, Tamori, Takeshi to co-host NTV comedy specials", http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hPQ9AJr5L.jpg, "Creative Review – Beat Takeshi Kitano at Fondation Cartier", "Cannes film festival: Countdown to Zero, The Housemaid, A Screaming Man and Outrage", "Takeshi Kitano considers making a third Outrage movie", "Beat Takeshi to Star in Scarlett Johansson's "Ghost in the Shell, "Hollywood Ghost in the Shell Movie Finally Gets a Japanese Actor: Beat Takeshi", "30th Moscow International Film Festival (2008)", "35th International Emmy Awards nominees", Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Takeshi_Kitano&oldid=1000897979, Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015, Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links, Articles with Japanese-language sources (ja), Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 January 2021, at 07:40. No one can be trusted. As reported by Dan Edwards, Kitano later said that the accident was an "unconscious suicide attempt". (1990), Kitano combined his boyhood obsessions of baseball and yakuza, starring as a violent mobster from a depraved world with his sense of humour still intact. Kitano laid the conceptual groundwork for Hana-bi years previously, with an equally potent blend of beauty and brutality in Sonatine. Japanese film director, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter and video game designer, "Kitano" redirects here. [16] He admitted he tried something different for Outrage by adding a lot of dialogue, stepping back as the main character to make an ensemble piece, and having the feel of a nature documentary watching the characters kill each other. TV Tackle is a kind of panel discussion among entertainers and politicians regarding controversial current events. Top image: Still, Boiling Point (1990) dir. After a few acting roles, including one alongside David Bowie in Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), things really took off in 1989 when Kitano inadvertently scored his directorial debut with Violent Cop. When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. That year Kitano also appeared in the film adaptation of William Gibson's 1995 Johnny Mnemonic, credited by the mononym "Takeshi",[13] although his on-screen time was greatly reduced for the American cut of the film. This wildly successful weekly TV slot earned Kitano the moniker of Beat Takeshi (by which he is most commonly known), a kind of loud-mouthed renegade that Kitano would return to as an actor, comedian and TV personality. clips from the movies OUTRAGE and OUTRAGE BEYOND - アウトレイジ and アウトレイジ ビヨンド He was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997. Although 1993's Sonatine did poorly in Japan, it received rave reviews in Europe when it was shown at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. After several other acting roles, mostly comedic, in 1989 he was cast as the lead in Violent Cop. Yakuza mayhem à la Takeshi Kitano 30 March 2011 | by Simonster – See all my reviews Viewed at the Festival du Film, Cannes 2010 Takeshi Kitano's return to his familiar stamping ground, the Yakuza, their intrigues, vendettas and highly inventive ways of inflicting extreme unpleasantness on one another, was given less than a stellar welcome by critics at the Festival. Besides hosting TV and radio shows in Japan, Kitano has also published books, created video games, and even … [15] A room in the basement played a 12-hour loop of his work as a TV host. [20] On 7 March 2013, Minkei News of Hong Kong reported that Kitano won the Best Director award for Outrage Beyond at the 7th Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. Kitano confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden.[7]. Kitano draws on their transgressive attitude, often deconstructing the uniforms of detectives and celebrating yakuza style, using clothing as a device to develop characters. [5][6], In the 1970s, he formed a comedy duo with his friend Nirō Kaneko (also called Kiyoshi Kaneko). While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, abroad he is better known for his work as a filmmaker. Orchestrated 'Outrage' Among Kitano's Yakuza Takeshi Kitano returns to the gangster genre with this elaborately plotted tale about a gruesome grudge match among rival clans. Kitano, or Beat Takeshi as he was known in his acting roles, had a lengthy resume, with some of the most acclaimed Japanese films ever made to his name. Then came the dream-like existentialism of A Scene at the Sea (1991) and Sonatine (1993), key examples of Kitano’s symbolic use of water as representing femininity and liminal spaces. This nurtured a defiant attitude and familiarity with violence that would colour his cinematographic language. “Brother” is Kitano’s first and last movie filmed outside of Japan. During the 1990s, the face of Japanese cinema projected internationally was almost entirely that of one man. Many of Kitano's routines involved him portraying a gangster or other harsh characters. The Yakuza … He has received critical acclaim for his idiosyncratic cinematic work, winning numerous awards with Japanese film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa having once dubbed him "the true successor" to influential filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Beginning with Boiling Point (1990), Kitano combined his boyhood obsessions of baseball and yakuza, starring as a violent mobster from a depraved world with his sense of humour still intact. With a new take on the character from Shintaro Katsu's long-running film and TV series, Zatōichi was Kitano's biggest box office success in Japan,[14] did quite well in limited release across the world, and won countless awards at home and abroad, including the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. In August 1994, Kitano was involved in a motorscooter accident and suffered injuries that caused partial paralysis of the right-side of his face. After several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989's Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine (1993). which was a Japanese TV show that was broadcast weekly from 1998 to 2002, a talk show on which a large panel of Japanese-speaking foreigners from around the world debate current issues in Japanese society. He treats his subordinates like his own children. [11] It also started a long-running collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi, which would last until 2002. With the exception of his works as a film director, he is known almost exclusively by the stage name Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし, Bīto Takeshi). All four of his films were screened at the 1994 London Film Festival. Kikujiro (1999) Kikujiro’s plot is so minimal. Standup comedy icon or visionary film director? He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Takeshi Kitano, noto anche con lo pseudonimo di Beat Takeshi (北野 武 Kitano Takeshi? When director Kinji Fukasaku stepped down over scheduling conflicts with Kitano, due to Kitano's TV commitments, the distributor suggested the comedian direct it at his own pace. His paintings have been published in books, featured in gallery exhibitions, and adorn the covers of many of the soundtrack albums for his films. , the widely exported Japanese game show in which contestants were sent sprawling over obstacles by the titular (and at times, sadistic) Count, played by Kitano. 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