I first saw his chef-d'oeuvre "Hana-Bi" and at first I couldn't believe that someone dared to mix aching beauty and rough violence in such a deeply honest and intimate film. Since then, I am a great admirer of this truly unique artist, filmmaker, painter, singer, writer, and comedian. (although I do not appreciate so much his songs and comedy shows...very weird and very japanese...). I would also recommend "Sonatine", which is great as well.
Quote from: Pubrickgood for u buttercup
may have misquoted by the absence of a comma
Quote from: budgiemay have misquoted by the absence of a comma
and a kiss.
Quote from: PQuote from: budgiemay have misquoted by the absence of a comma
and a kiss.
My flesh is weak.
I saw Hana-Bi a long long time ago and it was pretty interesting, whats Sonatine about?
Sonatine is about some tired yakuzas that try to escape their meaningless lives on a far-away beach, kidding and playing childish games. Amazing beauty, harmony, violence and pitch-dark humour describe this film pretty good. Enjoy it. :)
Quote from: chriskelvinSonatine is about some tired yakuzas that try to escape their meaningless lives on a far-away beach, kidding and playing childish games. Amazing beauty, harmony, violence and pitch-dark humour describe this film pretty good. Enjoy it. :)
Yeah, I really liked that movie... up until it added on the John Woo ending.
But, the gangsters hanging out and playing games was perfect.
Hmm...I don't think that the film had a "John Woo ending"...the violence at the end was the only plausible consequence to their meaningless existence. Woo would have presented a one-man-army-Chow Yun Fat dancing a final bullet ballet against all the evil guys. Kitano's violence is much more rough and sharp, it's not aesthetic, just cold-blooded and calculated. His anti-heroes are nihilists by definition. They just kill until they are killed themselves. The yakuzas in the film tried to escape this logic, unlike the Hong Kong-gangsters who are all driven by a certain desire (they belong to the more "conservative" mobsters :) ).
hana-bi was really amazing... i remember not liking sonatine as much though
brother is amazing. i didnt find violent cop to be THAT good. it was pretty good, but not as good as the rest
Has anyone seen Dolls? Since I saw it, Kitano resides for me at the sides of Kubrick and Welles. I really think he is the best filmmaker alive, although he paradoxically knows hardly anything (as far as I know) about film history in general. That is why he makes films like there had never been a century of cinema before.
Just saw the trailer for his new movie Zatoichi...a samurai film...
His first film, Violent Cop, is very good.
u guys and ur silly directors!
Quote from: ©bradu guys and ur silly directors!
Well, that is a contribution...
no , seriously, anyone who hasn't seen Dolls or Hana-Bi has missed an opportunity to reconsider the art of filmmaking. Kitano is to cinema what Nietzsche was to philosophy, I would say: the guy with the hammer...
Quote from: rustinglassHis first film, Violent Cop, is very good.
It is quite interesting to see how Kitano develops his style. An even better example for this is Jugatsu.
I think there is a some of kitano in kill bill: when hanzo yells at the kid, for example.
Quote from: rustinglassI think there is a some of kitano in kill bill: when hanzo yells at the kid, for example.
Yes, I discovered a lot of elements that Tarantino "borrowed" from the new japanese cinema, also a lot from Miike, for instance. Though I didn't like Kill Bill at all, but that is another issue.
PS: you can watch the trailer for Zatoichi at http://office-kitano.co.jp/zatoichi/trailer_main.html
Quote from: chriskelvinThough I didn't like Kill Bill at all, but that is another issue.
:cry: first my sister, now you...how worse can it get?!
Quote from: rustinglassQuote from: chriskelvinThough I didn't like Kill Bill at all, but that is another issue.
:cry: first my sister, now you...how worse can it get?!
Kusturica saying Kill Bill is a pile of shit. Would that be bad enough for you? :wink:
Quote from: rustinglassQuote from: chriskelvinThough I didn't like Kill Bill at all, but that is another issue.
:cry: first my sister, now you...how worse can it get?!
Well, if I can comfort you: my sister liked it a lot...almost everyone liked it a lot. I don't understand that.
Quote from: chriskelvinQuote from: rustinglassQuote from: chriskelvinThough I didn't like Kill Bill at all, but that is another issue.
:cry: first my sister, now you...how worse can it get?!
Well, if I can comfort you: my sister liked it a lot...almost everyone liked it a lot. I don't understand that.
But Kill Bill is soooooo great. As is Kitano and his films. Dolls stands as one of the best movies I've seen this year. Greatly directed and performed, it just broke my heart at times. I think it's a very violent film, not in the traditional Kitano way, but more on an emotional level. It's great and it's my favourite Takeshi Kitano film so far.
Quote from: RoyalTenenbaum
Kusturica saying Kill Bill is a pile of shit. Would that be bad enough for you? :wink:
FUCK!
:evil:
actually, I'm not surprised at that....but it hurts like hell.
chris, that does confort me...how old is your sister? :wink:
Quote from: rustinglass
chris, that does confort me...how old is your sister? :wink:
easy, rustinglass...keep your distance... :x
I saw dolls yesterday.
Though it was very good, I was expecting more from the reviews that I had read here.
Photography is excelent, it is, visually, the years' most beautiful film.
What was missing was, I think, the kitano dark humour and graphic violence (because it was really violent emotionally). I sure hope that kitano hasn't matured that much
Quote from: rustinglassI sure hope that kitano hasn't matured that much
He hasn't. I think his next film is quite the opposite of Dolls. How's it called? Zatoi... Zay... Err... Too lazy to check IMDB :?
It's Zatoichi and the trailer kicks fucking ass!
Quote from: rustinglassIt's Zatoichi and the trailer kicks fucking ass!
Gonna go check out the trailer right now.
so i guess no one's seen kikujiro no natsu?
it's totally in his top 3. hella poignant.
Well, I'm going to buy a kitano dvd box set: hana-bi; kikujiro and brother.
Do you consider that to be his top three.
Quote from: rustinglassWell, I'm going to buy a kitano dvd box set: hana-bi; kikujiro and brother.
Do you consider that to be his top three.
mmm, nah. Brother isn't so great.
Quote from: Pmmm, nah. Brother isn't so great.
It has some great moments.
Quote from: rustinglassI saw dolls yesterday.
Though it was very good, I was expecting more from the reviews that I had read here.
Photography is excelent, it is, visually, the years' most beautiful film.
What was missing was, I think, the kitano dark humour and graphic violence (because it was really violent emotionally). I sure hope that kitano hasn't matured that much
I heard that his wife died before he made the film.
I never regarded his violence as immature, by the way. On the contrary.
Has anyone ever noticed that in nearly all of his films there is a beach at the end? And in nearly all of his films he commits suicide.
Zatoichi is a great film. Saw it in the cinema, then bought the DVD as soon as I got home. Thank-you, ebay :-D I've also seen Brother - didn't think it was as good, really want to see Dolls soon. Which others of his films should I track down?
Quote from: kelvin
I never regarded his violence as immature, by the way. On the contrary.
Has anyone ever noticed that in nearly all of his films there is a beach at the end? And in nearly all of his films he commits suicide.
And the women in his films are almost always retarded... was his wife retarted?
Leave it P(ubrick) to come through with the best films... he's the only one that mentioned Kikujiro in this thread. Anyway I've seen four of Kitano's films -- Sonatine, Kikujiro, Brother, and Zatoichi -- and I love the man (well, I didn't like Brother). As suggested, Kikujiro is the best of the three and one of my favorite films. Here he combines his dark/off beat humor with absolute beauty/humanity and it's amazing to see unfold. Highly, highly recommended.
Zatoichi is fun fun fun... and fun. Kitano's reworking is his "coolest" film in terms of style, though he went for the new special effects tha I assume is in Japan (cg blood and guts) that don't look good at all. It's easy to overlook though because of the energy the film radiates of. Zatoichi exhibits great filmmaking; it's almost like his Kill Bill. I know the way I've been describing it so far makes it seem like Kitano sold out but his stamp is all over this film; it's most definitely his. It may not be as poignant or "serious" as his other stuff but he makes up for all of that in the cinematic experience he provides with what has to be his most entertaining and enjoyable movie. I'm not sure if there's any truth to this but it seems like he was influenced by Dancer in the Dark... you'll see. Which brings me to the sound... awesome awesome awesome. Given that Zatoichi is a blind samurai it seems appropriate that the sound get a lot of attention to detail, which it most definitely gets. The film's end is one of my favorite scenes ever... I saw the trailer and read a bit about it so I was anticpating it but it completely defies expectations. Honestly it contains the euphoria of Singin' in the Rain, ending the film in a very sweet note. I don't think I've had this much fun at the movies in a long time (well, I saw it on DVD... must go see it in theater, though)
Dolls Trailer here. (http://office-kitano.co.jp/dolls/dolls_large.mov)
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050902/film_nm/arts_venice_kitano_dc
Japan's Kitano surprises Venice with wacky new film
By Clara Ferreira-Marques
VENICE (Reuters) - Japanese cult director Takeshi Kitano baffled and enthralled Venice on Friday with the premiere of "Takeshis,"' a surreal send-up of his eclectic career which weaves together the lives of a TV celebrity and his lookalike.
The surprise addition to a list of 19 films vying for the Venice Film Festival's top Golden Lion prize is a bewildering jaunt from smoky mah-jong parlors and noodle bars to showdowns between gun-slinging yakuza gangsters.
Both the TV personality -- "Beat" Takeshi, the name he takes as an actor -- and the frustrated store attendant doppelganger, Takeshi Kitano, are played by the actor-director himself.
Cinema-goers are likely to be thrown off by Kitano's multiple personas and emerge confused from what the director himself describes as "a multi-layered Baumkuchen cake." But, he says with a smile, that is beside the point.
"I want the spectators to feel like they are in another dimension of reality. I don't want my audience to understand every detail," said Kitano, who won the Golden Lion in 1997 for his film "Hana-Bi," or "Fireworks."
"It's like one of my characters says, 'don't think too much, it's just a film'," he told Reuters.
The film borrows heavily from Kitano's gangster characters and scenes in earlier movies, from his debut "Violent Cop" to "Zatoichi," which won the Venice Silver Lion in 2003.
But this time, the bitter comedy is stronger than his customary bursts of violence.
Kitano says he hoped to use the film to close off the type of cinema that has made the prolific artist a cult name outside Japan, where he remains best known for his TV work.
"It is a funeral for the genres that I explored over the past dozen movies. In a sense, it is the last of a series," he said. "In Japanese, the title sounds like 'Takeshi's funeral'."
Now, the man who got his break as part of comedy duo "Two Beat," says he wants to have a go at the classics.
"After all, cinema has been around for more than a century. There are many great masters," said Kitano. "I feel like doing a very classical movie now, to challenge the giants."
Quote from: Ravi"After all, cinema has been around for more than a century. There are many great masters," said Kitano. "I feel like doing a very classical movie now, to challenge the giants."
wow, he's like a typical action hero in a scene where u think he's given all he has and the bad guys are laughing and then he says "that's when i got angry" and starts to
really kick ass.
a takeshi kitano master class (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P21nx7il5u0)
part two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H4iSPunzCo)
part three (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE3qmr_KfZ0)
part four. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIpsOOTLfcs)