Takeshi Kitano is without a doubt one of the greatest living film directors. He got his start as a film director with the action film Violent Cop. Interestingly, he sort of stumbled into this job. He was hired to play a supporting role, when the director dropped out. Kitano took the reins of the project and reworked the comedic script into a much darker, more sombre film. He upped his own role to lead and then turned the story into something more akin to Dirty Harry, where it had previously been more along the lines of Lethal Weapon and other comedic action flicks. Kikujiro is worlds away from Violent Cop, and certainly one of the must download internet movies if you want to see what Takeshi Kitano is really all about.
Kikujiro is really something different, or was at the time, for Kitano. He had generally been creating violent gangster films about the Yakuza. He first moved away from that genre with a film about surfers. When asked why his new movie had no yakuza in it, he said "Well you know yakuza have to chop off their fingers on their left hand when they disobey orders. And surfers have to paddle their boards out to sea. If a yakuza tried to surf, he would only paddle in circles." This sense of humor defines all of his work, including the sentimental, touching tale told in Kikujiro.
Kitano really has had an interesting career. Having once been a popular stage comedian, he stumbled into that career, too. He had been the emcee of a popular nightclub when the comedian of the night got sick and Kitano had to take over. The rest is history.
Eventually he became a popular TV show host, and even got a chance to make his own video game with Takeshi's Challenge. This game was really more of a torture device than anything, with ridiculous challenges such as demanding that the player hit a button thousands of times to progress, or sing into a microphone plugged into the Nintendo for an hour straight. The game was made, as the title screen declares, by "a man who hates video games." Well, the game certainly hates the player.
Kitano's odd sense of humor comes through very well in this movie. Kitano plays Kikujiro, an old man who fits the lovable loser archetype. He escorts a young boy across Japan to meet his estranged mother. He winds up blowing all their money at the tracks, thinking the kid is some kind of psychic after predicting three race winners in a row.
So Kitano is then forced to beg for food, scoring two sandwiches, and eating his own out of the boy's sight so he can pretend that he's doing without for the child's sake. This is a very sweet moment, with Kikujiro showing that he's not above lying to try and earn the boy's respect and affection.
The movie is, again, very sweet. Watching the old man and the young boy bond is moving and touching, and within one another, the two find their own definition of the word family.
It is, certainly, one of Kitano's best. Sonatine is the film he's really known for in the US, but Kikujiro is one of his many crowning achievements.
Kikujiro is really something different, or was at the time, for Kitano. He had generally been creating violent gangster films about the Yakuza. He first moved away from that genre with a film about surfers. When asked why his new movie had no yakuza in it, he said "Well you know yakuza have to chop off their fingers on their left hand when they disobey orders. And surfers have to paddle their boards out to sea. If a yakuza tried to surf, he would only paddle in circles." This sense of humor defines all of his work, including the sentimental, touching tale told in Kikujiro.
Kitano really has had an interesting career. Having once been a popular stage comedian, he stumbled into that career, too. He had been the emcee of a popular nightclub when the comedian of the night got sick and Kitano had to take over. The rest is history.
Eventually he became a popular TV show host, and even got a chance to make his own video game with Takeshi's Challenge. This game was really more of a torture device than anything, with ridiculous challenges such as demanding that the player hit a button thousands of times to progress, or sing into a microphone plugged into the Nintendo for an hour straight. The game was made, as the title screen declares, by "a man who hates video games." Well, the game certainly hates the player.
Kitano's odd sense of humor comes through very well in this movie. Kitano plays Kikujiro, an old man who fits the lovable loser archetype. He escorts a young boy across Japan to meet his estranged mother. He winds up blowing all their money at the tracks, thinking the kid is some kind of psychic after predicting three race winners in a row.
So Kitano is then forced to beg for food, scoring two sandwiches, and eating his own out of the boy's sight so he can pretend that he's doing without for the child's sake. This is a very sweet moment, with Kikujiro showing that he's not above lying to try and earn the boy's respect and affection.
The movie is, again, very sweet. Watching the old man and the young boy bond is moving and touching, and within one another, the two find their own definition of the word family.
It is, certainly, one of Kitano's best. Sonatine is the film he's really known for in the US, but Kikujiro is one of his many crowning achievements.
About the Author:
Semler is an artist disguised as a cinematographer. Renting Movies History of the Synthesizer - A Brief Look BackThe synthesizer was a long time in the making. Rhapsody has the best radio services, providing specialized stations that stream a pre-set list of music.
No comments:
Post a Comment