Takeshi Kitano Movies
"Beat" Takeshi Kitano is widely considered to be Japan's foremost media personality. In addition to his work in the film industry he is an active newspaper columnist, an author and poet, and a ubiquitous presence on Japanese television where he can be seen in up to eight prime time shows per week.Kitano first found fame, as well as his "Beat" nickname, in the early '70s as one-half of the manzai comedy duo The Two Beats, a fast-paced, cross-talk act that thrilled audiences with their off-color humor and satirical bite. Throughout the early '80s, Kitano acted in a number of films, most memorably in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). He portrayed Sgt. Hara, the jailer of a concentration camp, with a mixture of brutality and pathos, a characterization he would repeat in his later self-directed efforts.
In 1989 Kitano added another facet to his career -- serious film director. He was set to star in a police thriller that was to be directed by gangster film veteran Kinji Fukasaku. When Fukasaku had to leave the film, the film's producers offered Kitano the directing chores. He reworked the script and the result was Violent Cop, a deliriously violent masterpiece that brought him recognition in the international film community. With this film Kitano would introduce his lean directorial style, punctuated by long takes, minimal dialogue, and stark compositions. He would also develop what has become the archetype Kitano persona, the taciturn but oddly likable antihero who is just as likely to speak with his fists as with his voice. This uneasy mix of playful comedy and savage violence would become a trademark in his later crime epics, Boiling Point (1990), Sonatine (1993), and Hana-bi ( winner of the 1997 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion).
Kitano isn't only known for his crime films. In between, he's found the time to make a light drama about a deaf-mute garbage collector who learns to surf (Scene By the Sea [1991]), a slapstick comedy that mercilessly satirizes Japanese culture (Getting Any? [1995]), and a coming-of-age tale about two high school dropouts (Kids Return [1996]).
Kitano's directing career almost ended on August 2, 1994, when he was involved in a near-fatal motorbike accident. Suffering multiple head injuries, he was hospitalized for nearly six weeks and had to endure further months of physical therapy. During his recovery period Kitano played a small role in Takashi Ishii's Gonin (1995), where his hitman character sports a patch over his right eye, a real-life remnant of his brush with death.
Though international release of his previous films found positive critical notice but lukewarm response from mainstream American audiences, the year 2000 found Kitano on the verge of Hollywood success with the release of Brother, Kitano's first international co-production teaming the Japanese auteur with an English speaking cast. The tale of an exiled Japanese yakuza who stakes his claim in the unfamiliar world of Los Angeles, Brother attempted to bring Kitano's trademarked stark violence and subtle humor to a new audience in pairing Kitano with popular American actor Omar Epps. ~ Todd Bowman, Rovi
- 2010
- R
Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) returns to his roots as a star and director with this edgy gangster tale. The Chairman (Soichiro Kitamura) is the head of the Sanno-kai crime family, Japan's most powerful underworld syndicate, with his right-hand man, Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura), handling much of the crew's daily business. The Chairman's greatest rival is Murase (Renji Ishibashi), whose operation has made its money in drug peddling while the Sanno-kai has been striving to move its operations into more legitimate schemes. The Chairman believes that Ikemoto has become too close to Murase for comfort, and he wants the two sides to distance themselves. Ikemoto, not wanting to dirty his hands with any unpleasantness, orders one of his mechanics, Otomo (Beat Takeshi), to deliver a few reminders that the two gangs are on opposite sides. What begins as some brutal but petty recriminations by Otomo and his crew against Murase's underlings turns into a private war, and the violence on each side escalates with each exchange. Autoreiji (aka Outrage) received its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Kippei Shiina, (more)
- 2008
Director and screenwriter Takeshi Kitano charts the strange career arc of a struggling artist in this offbeat comedy-drama. Machisu Kuramochi (Reo Yoshioka) is the son of a successful businessman (Akira Nakao) with a passion for art, and at an early age Machisu decides he wants to make painting his career. When his father commits suicide after the collapse of his business, Machisu's stepmother (Mariko Tsutsui) sends him to live with an aunt and uncle who encourage him to hone his talent. As a teenager, Machisu (now played by Yurei Yanagi) attends art school and finds his traditional style of painting challenged by the more experimental and conceptual work turned in by his classmates. However, Machisu strikes up a friendship with a fellow student, Sachiko (Kumiko Aso), who encourages him to follow his own muse and paint what he loves. Machisu and Sachiko become lifelong friends, and as they enter heir fifties, both are still painting in the style that they established in their youth. However, while Sachiko (played as an adult by Kanako Higuchi) has found an original voice in his work, it's become increasingly obvious with the passage of time that Machisu (Beat Takeshi) has borrowed all he knows from the artists he loves without bringing much of his own personality to the picture. Akires to kame (aka Achilles and the Tortoise) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Kanako Higuchi, (more)
- 2007
At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one, which boasts contributions by 33 of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema,
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2007
A self-referential comedy that serves as prolific Japanese filmmaker Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's latest attempt at "creative destruction" (that process was set into motion with the release of 2005's Takeshis), Kantoku Banzai! follows an ageing filmmaker (Kitano) who is eager to revive his failing career. Realizing that he has taken to falling back on familiar clichés, the weary director experiments with producing everything from an Ozu-inspired home drama to an ultra-commercial J-horror film - all with varying degrees of failure. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Toru Emori, (more)
- 2005
In the latest film by Japanese television comic-turned-cinema auteur Takeshi Kitano, a soft-spoken convenience store cashier named Takeshi Kitano finds his fate inexplicably intertwined with that of ubiquitous Japanese showbiz star Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. At times running parallel and at other times unexpectedly intersecting, the radically different lives of the shy everyman Kitano and superstar celebrity Kitano slowly begin to gel into a surreal fantasy of fame as the convenience store clerk and aspiring actor loses himself to fantasies of becoming his famous look-alike. When the unstable fan purchases a variety of handguns under the guise of preparing for an upcoming role, his obsession with the television and film star threatens to erupt into violence. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Kotomi Kyono, (more)
Yoichi Sai directs Takeshi "Beat" Kitano in this adaptation of the popular Yang Seok-il novel concerning a violent, ruthless family patriarch whose obsession for money destroys all that surrounds him. In 1923, Kim Shun-pei left his home on a remote island south of Korea in order to seek out his fortune in Osaka, Japan. Upon arriving in Japan, Shun-pei faced relentless discrimination while forced to work hard labor under excruciating conditions. Despite the fact that the odds were stacked against him, however, Shun-pei eventually opened a Kamaboko (steamed fish cake) factory using nothing more than his remarkable personal strength and staunch determination. Shun-pei was a cunning and ruthless businessman, and his incredible tyranny extended to his personal life as well. Yet while Shun-pei's obsession with money was the very reason he eventually found success, it would also be his ultimate downfall. Later, as money and the constant quest for wealth overtook every aspect of his life, Shun-pei transforms himself into a vicious loan shark. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Hirofumi Arai, (more)
- 2003
Nobuyoshi Araki is Japan's most famous and notorious photographer. In a culture where complete female nudity is frowned upon even in men's magazines, Araki has been acclaimed and condemned for his photo books and exhibitions which usually focus upon women, usually nude and often in bold (and sometimes disturbing) poses. While he has been decried as a pornographer and a misogynist in his homeland, many others regard him as singular voice in the photographic arena, and many of the women who work with him have spoke of his sincere love and respect for them. Arakimentari is a film by American documentarian Travis Klose which offers a look at the professional and personal sides of Araki, including his background, his relationships with his models, his less well known portraiture and landscape work, and how he spends his spare time. Also included are interviews with several friends and contemporaries, including musician Björk, photographer Richard Kern, and actor/filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nobuyoshi Araki, Takeshi Kitano, (more)
- 2003
- R
Beat Takeshi Kitano directs and plays the title role in this tribute to the wildly popular "blind swordsman" of Japanese cinema who was the hero of more than 20 movies and a television series from the early '60s to the late '80s. In Kitano's version, Zatôichi wanders into a town harassed by criminal gangs, and helps two geishas take revenge on the men who murdered their parents. His mission leads him to a final, bloody confrontation with the gang's mastermind and his hired assassin (Tadanobu Asano), a swordsman with a reputation as lethal as Zatôichi. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
- 2002
Directed by Makoto Shinozaki, Asakusa Kid follows a fictional episode in the little known area of old fashioned Japanese vaudeville. When a college-age drifter lands at the door of a burlesque comedy troupe, he aspires to rise through the ranks of the business. He finds, however, that it isn't as easy as he thought. The small club is ruled with an iron fist by its stone-faced owner, who is not exactly patient with the eager young recruit at his feet. Asakusa Kid is based on a book written by Takeshi Kitano, and features Hakase Suidobashe, Sujitarou Tamabukuro, Saburou Ishikura, Kanako Fukaura, and Harumi Inoue. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Danakan, Kanako Fukaura, (more)
Master filmmaker Takeshi Kitano returns behind the camera for the first time since his indifferently received English-language effort Brother (2000) with this operatic tale of lost love. Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif -- specifically, the kind practiced in Bunraku doll theater performances -- opening each section of his film with a story provided by the puppets and their masters, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kanno), a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter. He initially agrees, causing the unstable Sawako to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. When he leaves his new bride at the altar to save Sawako, however, he realizes that she's so incapable of caring for herself that she needs to be tied to him with a red rope. Inextricably bound, the two wander through Japan, encountering others along the way who have similarly overlooked love for other, more fleeting pleasures: fame, power, money. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, (more)
Internationally acclaimed director and Japanese media phenomenon Takeshi Kitano follows up his well-regarded Kikujiro with this straight-ahead gangster saga with a cross-cultural twist. The film focuses on Yamamoto (Kitano), a yakuza forced out of the country when a gang war all but wipes out his clan. Armed with a fake credit card, a forged passport, and a bag of money, he journeys to the strange and foreign land of Los Angeles to join his half-brother Ken (Claude Maki), who works as a low-rent street tough alongside fast-talking hustler Denny (Omar Epps). With brutal efficiency, the poker-faced Yamamoto starts staking out turf and organizing Ken's mob into one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the city. As his gang grows in number and power, he is joined by Kato (Kitano regular Susumu Terajima), his former lieutenant from Japan, who entreats Little Tokyo's pathological crime boss Shirase (Masaya Kato) to join the group. Yamamoto seems unstoppable until his gang runs afoul of the Mafia. Soon, all that he built quickly and bloodily starts to unravel as every member in his gang is marked for death. This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Claude Maki, (more)
After a 13-year absence, partially due to a life-threatening stroke, master filmmaker Nagisa Oshima returns to the silver screen with this revisionist samurai epic. From his first major film, Cruel Story of Youth to his most notorious work Ai no Korrida, Oshima has coupled the political and the sexual in a manner that transgresses all social norms. In this film, Oshima explores homosexuality among the ranks of the much hallowed samurai. The film is set in Kyoto in 1865 during a critical moment of Japanese history--the country's 300-year-long self-imposed isolation was coming to an abrupt halt leading to the end of the Shogunate. In its place came a more internationally-minded government with the Emperor as its nominal head. Feeling both their traditions and their grip on power threatened, samurai militia sprang up throughout the country to fight this foreign encroachment. One such group, the Shinsengumi, is auditioning new recruits at the film's opening. Commander Kondo (Yoichi Sai) and Captain Hijikata (Takeshi Kitano, a renowned filmmaker in his own right) select the ruggedly handsome Tashiro (cult actor Tadanobu Asano) and Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda), an effeminate lad with long locks and a thirst for blood. Worried about the perceived slightness of the latter, Kondo and Hijikata order Kano to perform an execution, which he does with grim aplomb. The lad's androgynous beauty soon raises the general blood pressure of the militia. While Tashiro snuggles up with him nightly, Hijikata, who suspects that something other than manly appreciation is going on between the two neophytes, also seems unduly interested in the youth. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Shinji Takeda, (more)
After the success of Hana-Bi (1997), Takeshi Kitano, or 'Beat' Takeshi, as he is often called, made another film in which once again he is the director, screenwriter, editor, the leading player and the talent behind the art work. Unlike many of his films about the violent lives of the yakuza, Kikujiro is a bittersweet road movie about two characters who have very little in common. Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) is a sensitive nine-year-old boy who has to spend his summer vacation alone with his grandmother. Soccer practice is suspended and all his friends are away at the beach. In his boredom, he decides to look for the mother he has never met; with only a photo, an address, and very little money, this does not seem like a good idea. A friend of his grandmother's volunteers to send her husband along. The problem is that the irresponsible, loudmouthed, and greedy Kikujiro (Kitano), a low-level yakuza, is hardly the ideal companion for a child. He does not even like children. Starting with the excursion to the cycle races, this mismatched couple goes through a fanciful journey full of oddball characters and pleasant surprises. The best surprise of all is to discover how much they have in common. By the end of the journey, sullen Masao gains the sense of magic that had been missing from his life. As for Kikujiro, he now has a better understanding of who he is and what has been wrong with his life, although it takes a child to make him realize this. Kitano has declared that his own father, who passed away when he was a little boy, was the inspiration for the character of Kikujiro. The man was a house painter, carpenter, and master of traditional Japanese dance, but also a gambler who let his family down on many occasions. Another Japanese director, Makoto Shinozaki of Okaeri fame, has made Jam Session, a feature-length documentary on the making of Kikujiro. In competition at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Yusuke Sekiguchi, (more)
In this French-Japanese drama, Tokyo cop Roy (Tetta Sugimoto) is on the "Four Eyes" case, searching for punk K (Shinji Takeda), who goes about shooting at various people in positions of authority. K's thick-lensed glasses have caused him to be nicknamed "Four Eyes" in newspaper articles. Roy's sister, 17-year-old Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa) spots Four Eyes one day, follows and befriends him, and even after seeing him shoot at people, she remains attracted to him. The film features a cameo by Takeshi Kitano. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shinji Takeda, Hinano Yoshikawa, (more)
Actor and auteur Takeshi Kitano (who in Japan also uses the stage name "Beat" Takeshi, primarily for his work as a television comedian) wrote, directed, edited, and starred in this unusual crime drama. Nishi (Takeshi Kitano) is a policeman whose emotions seem to run only on two extreme paths -- either quiet contentment or brutal rage. Nishi's life is falling apart around him; his daughter was murdered, his wife, Miyuki (Kayoko Kishimoto), is dying of leukemia, his partner, Horibe (Ren Osugi), was ambushed by thugs after Nishi left him to visit his wife in the hospital and will now spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, and another cop was killed coming to Horibe's rescue. Nishi desperately wants to quit his job so he can spend more time with his dying wife, so he borrows a large sum of money from the yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and takes up a career as a painter while he cares for Miyuki. Not wanting to stay in debt to the gangsters, Nishi engineers a daring bank robbery (using his police uniform and an old auto disguised to look like a squad car) and uses the loot to pay off the yakuza and take his wife on a final vacation. However, the loan sharks are not eager to have Nishi off the hook, and they begin complaining that he still owes them interest on their loan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, (more)
- 1996
Following his 1995 brush with death in the form of a motorcycle accident, actor/comedian/writer/director Takeshi Kitano spins this wistful -- if bleak -- tale about a pair of high school buddies and their inevitable slide into adulthood. Bumptious Masaru (Kenichi Kaneko) and his quiet sidekick, Shinji (Masanobu Ando), spend much of their time harassing teachers and shaking down students instead of going to school. At one point they dangle a large anatomically correct doll before the class window of a particularly maligned teacher. One day, one of their favorite marks brings along a more skilled street punk to thwart his tormentors. Their thrashing is so thorough that Masaru drags Shinji to a boxing gym. There they learn the ways of pugilism, but it turns out that only Shinji has a gift for the sport. As Shinji rises in boxing rank, Masaru drifts away from his friend and joins a yakuza gang. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1995
Get Carter meets Heidegger in this slick, two-fisted gangster epic brimming with furtive sex and shocking violence. The film centers on five poster-boys of Japan's post-bubble economic malaise: Bandai (Koichi Sato), the owner of a once popular nightclub who's up to his fashionable lapels in debt to the yakuza; the gay extortionist (Masahiro Motoki) who loves him; Ogiwara (Naoto Takenaka of Shall We Dance fame), a downsized salaryman on the brink of mental collapse; an drug addict ex-police detective just out of stir (Jimpachi Nezu); and failed prize-fighter turned spastic pimp (Kippei Shiina). Each has a beef with the yakuza, most particularly Bandai, who is daily taunted and threatened by the unruly thugs. He organizes the motley crew and raids a yakuza office, and not only manages to make off with almost a hundred million yen but humiliates the thugs in front of their syndicate boss. In retaliation, the mob hires a hitman (Takeshi Kitano) who sports an eyepatch and works with ruthless efficiency, killing the five -- and those closest to them -- one by one without pity or remorse. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
In a near-future world in which the fast-paced digital lifestyle has given rise to a worldwide plague called Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, Johnny (Keanu Reeves), a data courier, accepts an assignment that he hopes will allow him to pay for the restoration of the childhood memories he dumped in order to outfit his brain with the microchip necessary for him to carry out his profession. Narrowly escaping a Yakuza ambush in which his employers are killed and the mnemonic trigger capable of unlocking the data in his brain is partially destroyed, Johnny travels from Beijing to New Jersey, where he hopes to recover the data before "neural seepage" destroys his mind. Teaming up with would-be bodyguard Jane (Dina Meyer) and a rebel group known as the LoTeks who live in an abandoned bridge, he tries to outrun the assassins of mysterious businessman Takahashi (Beat Takeshi Kitano) -- and the Street Preacher (Dolph Lundgren), a bionic madman. Along the way, he meets a mysterious electronic entity, a sentient dolphin, and Spider (Henry Rollins), a cybernetics expert, all of whom attempt, with various degrees of success, to learn why the data in Johnny's head is so important. Science fiction author William Gibson's original short story Johnny Mnemonic helped usher in the age of cyberpunk when it appeared in Omni magazine in 1981; it later appeared in the collection Burning Chrome (alongside the story that provided the basis for Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel). Although Gibson himself wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic, the film diverges considerably from the story. Molly Mirrors, a recurring character in Gibson's fiction, was replaced by the figure of Jane to fend off licensing conflicts with any future film version of Neuromancer, the author's most celebrated novel. Other plot elements -- most notably the LoTeks' bridge habitat -- were borrowed from later Gibson fiction such as the novel Virtual Light. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, (more)
- 1994
Takeshi Kitano made an international name for himself for directing films of great emotional subtlety and technical innovation such as Hana-Bi and Sonatine. This film displays none of those traits. Directed under his comedian moniker "Beat Takeshi," Kitano displays the bawdy schtick that made him famous with this gleefully stupid tale about one man's attempt at getting laid. Asao (Dannkann) wakes up one morning from a dream in which he's seen as a hipster shagging a beautiful woman in the back of a really cool car. He immediately sets out to the local car dealership and asks the salesman which vehicle would be best suited for "car sex." Soon he exits the lot with a little sportster and promptly fails at picking up a cute girl he sees on the street. After a series of comic mishaps, ending finally with this car getting crushed by a truck, he goes to plan B -- to steal enough money to fly first class and test his seductive luck with the stewardesses. When robbing a bank fails, he takes up acting in a Zatoichi-like samurai film only to accidentally dump dung on every one of his fellow actors. Finally, after humiliating and exhausting himself trying to get the attention of the opposite sex, he tries to become invisible and embark on a career as a peeping tom. Improbably, he does, getting more than he bargained for. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dannkann, Shouji Kobayashi, (more)
- 1993
Kazuo (Masato Hagiwara) is not taken in the by phony miracles put on by the religious group he encounters during one of its tours of Japan, but he is genuinely fascinated by the conmanship of it all. The group is fronted by the sincere elderly master Tetsuharu (Koji Tamaki), who takes the hardworking young man as a sincere devotee, but its showmanship is entirely the product of Daisuke and Shiba (Beat Takeshi and Ittoku Kishibe), working in concert, and they take Kazuo as another unbeliever like themselves. When the con-men in religious guise decide that they need a 100% fake operation, they choose Kazuo to replace Tetsuharu, but the rank-and-file grow restive, and eventually they bring back the old man. This unusual satire is based on a wildly popular novel by well-known movie-man eat Takeshi. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Masato Hagiwara, Koji Tamaki, (more)
- 1993
- R
Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, comedian, television star, author, and all-around renaissance man Takeshi "Beat" Kitano stars in this unconventional take on the crime drama. Kitano portrays Murakawa, a successful Yakuza officer who has grown weary of the violent life, so much so that he has even considered retirement. Thus, he is not pleased when he is asked to lead a team to help defuse a gang war in Okinawa but agrees when he is assured it will be an easy job. It proves anything but, however, and he soon finds himself in the middle of a complex, bloody conflict. Fearing that he has been set up, Murakawa withdraws to a nearby coastal town. The film takes a trademark Kitano turn at this point, moving away from the standard crime drama plot to focus on what amounts to a gangster's summer vacation, with the killers playing frisbee on the beach and taking dancing lessons. Murakawa even finds a summer romance, falling in love with a local girl who is impressed by his way with a gun. This sunny idyll cannot last forever, however, and soon the realities of the criminal life catch up with them. Seen as a prime example of Kitano's style, Sonatine features a combination of deadpan comedy and unexpectedly romantic lyricism, periodically interrupted by shockingly sudden bursts of violence. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kitano, Tetsu Watanabe, (more)
- 1992
Takeshi Kitano -- who, along with directing some of the most acclaimed films of the 1990s, appears on four television shows, writes a number of newspaper columns, and somehow finds the time to crank out a book or two a year -- takes a break from his trademark two-fisted yakuza sagas such as Violent Cop to spin this restrained and very quiet drama about a deaf young man named Shigeru (Kurodo Maki) and his girlfriend, Takako (Hiroko Oshima). Shigeru, a garbage collector, happens upon a discarded surfboard, which begins his fascination with the sea. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claude Maki, Hiroko Oshima, (more)
- 1991
Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano directs, writes, and acts in this gangster comedy about the Yakuza, the notorious criminal organization of Japan. Masahiko Ono portrays the hapless Masaki, a local baseball player and gas-station attendant who runs afoul of some local gangsters. Masaki goes to Okinawa to buy a gun so he can stand up for himself. In Okinawa, he meets Uehara (Kitano), a tough, hardened gangster who is in serious debt to the mob. Along with some friends, they go to Tokyo to confront the Yakuza. As in many of his acting roles, Kitano is credited in the cast as Beat Takeshi. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, Rovi
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