To describe Japan’s Takeshi Kitano (or Beat Takesi) as anything other than “versatile” is outright unthinkable. While frequently known and celebrated for his forays into crime dramas with a series of films involving cops and yakuza to his credit– Brother, Sonatine, Hana-bi, Violent Cop— Kitano has displayed an unwillingness to be pigeonholed as a participant … Continue reading
A profile of a great actor playing a great character, but also a rare admission that I was wrong. Continue reading
So, if you keep up with this blog, and if you have kept up with this blog for a long time, you probably know that I’m a big fan of Takeshi Kitano, of Zatoichi, and also of Kikujiro, and of these especially Kikujiro. In fact it only recently occurred to me that Kikujiro is my favorite Kitano movie (though Glory … Continue reading
For the last decade, Japanese maestro Takeshi Kitano has taken a break from the Yakuza films that have come to strongly identify his entire body of work, turning to projects ranging from Zatoichi to his surreal and allegedly autobiographical trilogy of pictures starting with Takeshis and ending with 2008’s Achilles and the Tortoise. But ten … Continue reading
I don’t typically participate in blog memes, mostly because deadlines aren’t really my thing– this is a leisurely blog, updated when I deign fit to update it, after all, and I have so many other things to do with my time that setting dates for myself generally doesn’t work out. But some memes are just … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 