burlivesleftnut wrote:What's the one with the little boy. Where he was a retired thug helping the boy get to his mom? Holy christ what a beautiful movie. Loved it. And very sweet and funny.
colonel_lugz wrote:i saw "Takeshis" at the london film festival the other month and it was amazing, you'd have to know and love his films to understand most of the references. I myself did a dissertation about his work to get my degree. sorry, was that showing off a bit?
Meat Takeshi wrote:colonel_lugz wrote:i saw "Takeshis" at the london film festival the other month and it was amazing, you'd have to know and love his films to understand most of the references. I myself did a dissertation about his work to get my degree. sorry, was that showing off a bit?
Yeah a little bit![]()
Any idea if it's getting a limited UK relase?
keepcoolbutcare wrote:Love his long takes. The Ordell shooting Beaumont scene in "Jackie Brown" is a direct homage. I forget which of his films has a long take of him walking over a curved bridge, but that was pure genius.
My fave is "Boiling Point"..."Beat" is one funny mofo.
ZombieZoneSolutions wrote:yeah, Takeshi is an interesting guy and he has an interesting history too...
long story short, he started out as this goofy J-TV comedian / personality... then he was in a terrible car crash that almost cost him his life... apparently he suffered severe head trauma... but he bounced back and had an epiphany about film-making... hence his level of artistry... at least, that's the legend...
i haven't seen Dolls yet, but i loved Sonantine and Zatoichi... i'd argue based on what i've seen that Zatoichi is his best film...
and his role in Battle Royale was priceless!
John-Locke wrote:Most of all I like Takeshi's Castle on Cable TV, those Japs sure do some painful things in the name of entertainment. I've tried to find a video clip of Skipping Stones (the most deadly of the challenges) but you'll have to take my word for it.
Brocktune wrote:they re-dub and re-edit this show and show it here in the us under the title "MXC" which was shortened from "most extreme elimination challenge", if im not mistaken. its fucking hilarious
MARK SCHILLING wrote:Japanese helmer Takeshi Kitano ("Zatoichi") has finally unveiled details of his latest gangster pic -- his first in nine years.
"Outrage" depicts power struggles among Tokyo gangsters. Kitano not only helms and scripts but also plays the lead, a low-ranking gang boss who does his superiors' dirty work.
The cast includes Tomokazu Miura, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Jun Kunimura, Tetta Sugimoto, Renji Ishibashi and Takashi Tsukamoto.
Warner Japan and Office Kitano are skedded to release the pic next year.
Kitano made his international breakthrough in 1993 playing a gang boss in "Sonatine," and became known for his extreme depictions of violence in pics including "Boiling Point" (1990), "Hana-Bi" (1997) and "Brother" (2000).
TheButcher wrote:From Variety:
Kitano plots gangster pic 'Outrage'MARK SCHILLING wrote:Japanese helmer Takeshi Kitano ("Zatoichi") has finally unveiled details of his latest gangster pic -- his first in nine years.
"Outrage" depicts power struggles among Tokyo gangsters. Kitano not only helms and scripts but also plays the lead, a low-ranking gang boss who does his superiors' dirty work.
The cast includes Tomokazu Miura, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Jun Kunimura, Tetta Sugimoto, Renji Ishibashi and Takashi Tsukamoto.
Warner Japan and Office Kitano are skedded to release the pic next year.
Kitano made his international breakthrough in 1993 playing a gang boss in "Sonatine," and became known for his extreme depictions of violence in pics including "Boiling Point" (1990), "Hana-Bi" (1997) and "Brother" (2000).
magicmonkey wrote:They really shouldn't have left Violent Cop off that list...
I could've been a yakuza: Japan film maker Takeshi Kitano
by Gilles Campion
TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano, who brought the yakuza gangster genre to a global public, says he could have made his life in the underworld had it not been for his mother.
The star of "Violent Cop", "Sonatine" and "HANA-BI" made the revelation in a new book, "Kitano par Kitano" (Kitano by Kitano), written with French journalist Michel Temman and to be released next week.
"If it were not for my mother's strict education, I could easily imagine having become a yakuza myself, because many of my friends in those years ended up becoming yakuza," he told AFP ahead of the book's launch.
"But none of them really managed to get to the top. So if I had become one, I wouldn't have made it very far. I might even be dead now," Kitano added.
"Everyone around me, every friend I grew up with, was a quasi-hooligan. I didn't think it was something special to do things like steal cash from shinto shrines. Every kid in my neighborhood did that."
Acclaimed overseas for action movies that often reveal a bleak outlook on life and human relationships, and wildly popular on TV shows at home as quirky comedian "Beat Takeshi", Kitano grew up living on the edge.
Born in post-war Japan in 1947, Kitano was raised by a poor family in a working-class district northeast of Tokyo. His father, a house painter who gambled and drank, spent little time with his four children.
It was his strong-willed mother who pushed him and his siblings to study. With a passion for mathematics and science, Kitano enrolled in university, only to abandon classes for his other great love, show business.
After making his acting debut on the stage of the "French Theatre" in Tokyo's working-class district of Asakusa, Kitano quickly clinched a spot in a television show under the name "Beat Takeshi".
Since then, Takeshi has become a household name and still appears from time to time on eight weekly TV shows in tandem with his career as a movie director.
Takeshi's television persona is often the opposite of the characters he plays in his movies. Instead of the cool gangster, Kitano plays the obnoxious kid whose bawdy remarks reveal his comedic side.
Responding to critics who call him vulgar, Kitano said: "I am more upset than hurt... (but) from the very beginning of my career as a comedian, I thought to myself that the critics are not to be trusted."
Kitano silenced his detractors with his directing debut, the thriller "Violent Cop", in which he also starred.
He shot to international fame in 1993 with his fourth movie, "Sonatine", devoted to yakuzas, although it was a relative flop in Japan.
The next year Kitano, after a heavy night out, had a brush with death in a Tokyo motorcycle accident that scarred and partially paralysed his face.
"I could have died, but a string of coincidences let me survive," he said.
Energetic Kitano soon went back to work, shooting "Kids Return" (1996) about youths in a poor neighborhood, followed by "HANA-BI" (1997), a poignant love story in the midst of an anti-gang fight, which won him Venice's Golden Lion Award.
In 2003, his movie "Zatoichi", which pays homage to a Japanese classic about a blind swordsman, won him critical acclaim both overseas and in Japan.
Apart from his book's publication, other events are planned in France this year on Kitano: a retrospective of his films at the Georges Pompidou Center, and an exhibition of his paintings at the Cartier Foundation.
"I just want to call them kid's paintings, kid's drawings," he said. "If I would say that my paintings are more than a hobby, people would laugh at me."
Liz Shackleton wrote:The 3D version of the original will be ready for market screenings in October and released in Japan on November 20.
Japanese studio Toei is preparing a 3D version of Kinji Fukasaku’s cult action thriller Battle Royale (pictured), which is one of the widest selling movies ever from Japan.
Released in 2000, the gore fest grossed $26m in Japan and sold to 35 territories worldwide. At the time of its release, Japanese politicians attempted to ban the film which depicts a group of delinquent students hacking each other to death on a deserted island.
Fukasaku’s son, Kenta Fukasaku, is supervising the 2D to 3D conversion in Tokyo through this production company Fukasaku-Gumi. Kinji Fukasaku passed away in 2003, so Kenta took over directing duties on a sequel, Battle Royale 2: Requiem, which was released later the same year.
The 3D version of the original will be ready for market screenings in October and released in Japan on November 20. Like the original, the 3D version will have an R-15 rating in Japan.
Toei is also launching sales on Zebraman 2: Attack On Zebra City, a sequel to Takashi Miike’s 2004 hit, starring Show Aikawa and Riisa Naka.
Bob Tourtellotte wrote:Takeshi Kitano unleashed his "Outrage" on the Cannes film festival on Monday, returning to his filmmaking roots with a violent yakuza movie that uses just about anything as a tool to murder, including chopsticks.
Film
"Outrage," which tells of a bloody gang war among rival factions of Tokyo's Sanno-kai crime gang, is Kitano's first yakuza flick since 2000's "Brothers," and the Japanese actor/writer/director/comedian pulled no punches in dreaming up new ways to kill.
Kitano, better known for his stage name Beat Takeshi, told reporters there were no deep, thoughtful reasons for returning to the gangster genre. He simply wanted to.
"I thought it would be as good a time as any," he said at a Cannes news conference.
But he was quick to add that he wanted to ensure "Outrage" was fresh. To do that, Kitano added loud dialogue between the characters and a fast pace to the action, which contrasts dramatically to his typically bleak and even nihilistic style.
As important, he strived to find ever more gruesome ways to perpetrate violence. In fact, he first created new methods of murder to form the movie's structure, then filled-in the plot.
Where the violence is concerned -- and not to give anything away -- his fans may delight in scenes that include flying fingers, plunging chopsticks, a nasty bit of dentistry and the intertwining of a head, a rope and a luxury sedan.
Beyond the gruesome killing in what Kitano admitted was a "hideously violent movie," there are sharp and loud exchanges among the characters, who in his yakuza films of the past had been mostly stoic and quiet.
Then, there are the actors themselves, who are not his usual troupe of performers but newer faces for a Kitano movie.
"We intentionally decided to work with new people," he said, adding that from the first day on the set he could see that "everyone falls into the right character, and I think my method turned in the right result."
Kitano portrays Otomo, the head of a small clan of thugs who work for the yakuza boss Ikemoto (Jun Kunimura). He, in turn, takes orders from "Mr. Chairman," (Soichiro Kitamura), the powerful leader of the sanno-kai syndicate.
When Ikemoto tangles with another clan boss, Murase (Renji Ishibashi), a gang war breaks out in Tokyo and bullets -- among other things -- begin to fly.
Yakuza tales have been told for decades on film and when asked if, in fact, he wasn't being old-fashioned in returning to the genre, Kitano said, no.
Since the yakuza still existed, they themselves could not be deemed old-fashioned, he said.
He did admit, however, that their ways of making money have evolved, and now encompass computers, communications, stocks and bonds, compared to decades ago when drug running, gambling, prostitution and protection rackets earned them yen.
But the new ways were too sophisticated for Kitano's return to yakuza. Instead, he chose chopsticks.
It is being reported that director Takeshi Kitano (63) has decided to work on a sequel to his most recent movie, "Outrage." The film opened on 155 screens in June, earning 4th place in its opening weekend and grossing 750 million yen so far. Kitano is apparently hoping to capitalize on that success with "Outrage 2," which is aimed for a fall 2011 release.
Early in his directing career, Kitano became known for his violent yakuza films such as "Violent Cop" and "Sonatine." He later took a turn with recent works like "Takeshis'" and "Kantoku Banzai!," but "Outrage" marked his return to yakuza films after roughly a decade.
Kitano spoke highly of the "Outrage" cast, saying that he felt he was able to create an interesting movie. However, he said that upon close analysis, it just barely made the grade in his mind, so he is aiming to make an even more interesting and enjoyable work.
"Outrage 2" will be jointly distributed by Office Kitano and Warner Brothers. The project is still in the preparatory stages, so the story details are unknown at this point, but it is said that Kitano plans to add new big-name cast members.
Source: Cinema Today
Patrick Frater wrote:In an interesting sideswipe, Kitano said that he did not enjoy the cartoons of Hayao Miyazaki, the Studio Ghibli founder and cultural icon honored only a day earlier by the festival and Pixar’s John Lasseter. “I really don’t,” Kitano said. “But it is important to recognize other opinions.”
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