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Anyone else seen TAKESHIS' yet? Truly a bizarre personal work that only Takeshi himself would fully understand.

Shochiku will release the latest bizarre effort from Takeshi Kitano TAKESHIS' on 4/7 in Japan, Region 2. English subs will be provided, and will only have 1 disc, with the feature, plus interviews and trailers. (as usual only the feature will have English subs)

Yes I saw it a couple of months ago, and loved it. A very intelligent and fun reflexion on the status of the star and the actor, and Kitano himself. Visually innovative and musically too, more crazy tap dancing is good.

Arn777 wrote:more crazy tap dancing is good.

Like the ending to Kitano's Zatoichi... splendid!

Yes, but this time it's right in the middle of the film, and followed by some crazy DJ scratching action, before moving onto the beach for some serious gun firing action.

It is everything what Kitano is about. Each cut, each mise-en-scene is a quotation or allusion or self-reflective association; in short, the entire film is a complex hypertextual representation of Kitano as an artist.

The red Porsche is a quotation from Getting Any?, the dual guns and mindless shooting on the beach is the embodiment of the accusation, that Kitano makes mindless violence, the reality / irreality cut with the projectionlamp is an actual event Kitano experienced when he studied at the university, and so on, and so on.

Then there is a futher examination of gags and gagstructure, as he also did in Getting Any? Then there is Kitanos own satire on the entire struggle between Beat and Takeshi. Then... and Then... and Then..

Takeshis' is amongst the purest auteurist work ever made. It is a triumph of filmmaking. My interview with Kitano & my review.

I just saw it at the Rotterdam filmfestival and I loved it.....really great absurd humour and indeed as self-reflexive as a filmmaker can get. It reminded me of Waiting for Godot on numerous occassions. Only downside for me was the ending, to me (and the a large section of the audience as I read the responses correctly) it felt too stretched out and too repetitve, with only few 'new' elements. It lessened the absurdist edge it had for 3/4 of the film...

The Japanese DVD is out. The DVD looks great -- and the subtitles seem fine. The film is remarkable -- it looks like Kitano did some heavy duty study of (and reflection upon) the films of Bunuel prior to tackling this. ;~}

I doubt that he did. Beat Takeshi has repeatedly said he dosent like watching movies, and so he doesn't find inspiration from other 'masters'. He's more of an original filmmaker with no background knowledge

I think this is how he likes to present himself but in reading his books (especially jingi naki eigaron) it becomes immediately apparent that not only does he watch other filmmakers' work, he watches them critically.

Kitano is cagey in discussing influences -- but occasionally he lets thing slip in passing. While he once explicitly disclaimed knowledge of Ozu, in another interview he made it clear that he was very familiar with (and very much admired) Ozu's framing methods. More importantly, it is inconceivable that Kitano hadn't studied some of Ozu's silents at the point he made "Scene at the Sea" and that he had not virtually memorized "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" prior to making "Kikujiro".

Bresson also famously claimed that he never went to the cinema, but he was "outed" by another director (it was either Chabrol or Rohmer) who said that Bresson saw "tous les films" and was a constant fixture at the Cinematheque Francaise.

That case of "mock dismissal" of Ozu is similar to his attitude with Kurosawa, who he has "put down" because he portrays the blatantly stereo-typical asian look. In an arranged meeting hehowever was "beaming with boyish pride" and later on "clearly relished his moment of triumph with the famous master."
(Quotes from an article by Darell William Davis)

Okay it does not say much a particular influence, but it at least shows that he is very aware of those who preceded him.

I believe Kitano has also mentioned that a few Godard films have influenced his own work.

Andre Jurieu wrote:I believe Kitano has also mentioned that a few Godard films have influenced his own work.

More than that, he explicitly said that if you do not understand Godard's work you cannot hope to understand his.

Anyway, all of this should be answered by a quick perusal through the filmographies and bio on kitanotakeshi.com.

-Attitude ON-

Anyway, all of this should be answered by a quick perusal through the filmographies and bio on kitanotakeshi.com.

I hope it isn't your site, otherwise that sentence would be truly misplaced and grotesque in its arrogance....

Yes that site is rich in information and very comprehensive, but if it would answer all these questions through a quick perusal than why do we even bother to watch Kitano himself? It neither should do this nor can do this....

-Attitude OFF-

AZAI wrote:

Anyway, all of this should be answered by a quick perusal through the filmographies and bio on kitanotakeshi.com.

I hope it isn't your site, otherwise that sentence would be truly misplaced and grotesque in its arrogance....

its not his site.. it is dvdane's, a long-standing member of this forum, best friends with the Invunche, and doesnt seem to post here much any more.

Yes that site is rich in information and very comprehensive, but if it would answer all these questions through a quick perusal than why do we even bother to watch Kitano himself? It neither should do this nor can do this....

I was referring to questions of influence as admitted by Kitano, questions which are answered on the site; instances of unadmitted influence would be answered in the individual analysis of the films, which are also on the site. I really don't care why anyone else watches Kitano or not, but the idea that, since questions about cinematic influence can be answered by reading about it from a knowledgeable source on the subject, the films are no longer worth viewing is too absurd and under thought to bother with.

Are you itching for a fight or something? Otherwise, I don't see any possible reason why I would be the admin of kitanotakeshi.com any more than any other random poster in this thread, so much so that general abuse was in order. Even if I were, far be it for me (or anyone) to ever direct someone to things I've written elsewhere--you know, to save time and effort. That would just be unconscionably arrogant and unhelpful.

Mr_sausage wrote:far be it for me (or anyone) to ever direct someone to things I've written elsewhere--you know, to save time and effort. That would just be unconscionably arrogant and unhelpful.

Since when has concern over being thought of as arrogant prevented some people on this board from recommending their own writings...?

we're in for more spectacular Kitano weirdness... Banzai!

Following the DVD Beaver Kikujiro comparison, I ordered the Bandai Visuals' Kikujiro DVD from Yesasia.com, but one day later I received a message telling me that the DVD is not in stock anymore and is not likely to be in stock in the near future. My second choice was the Korean DVD (Enter One ) but it is also not in stock and the Sony and Film Freak don't look too good.

I found a Pathe edition in the Amazon.uk web site but I have no idea about the quality of that edition. Anybody who owns or watched the Pathe Distribution edition and could advise me to purchase it or not or maybe direct me to a good available and alternative.

I believe the Japanese DVD of Kikujiro will be re-re;leased later this year -- hopefully cheaper and hopefully still subtitled.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I believe the Japanese DVD of Kikujiro will be re-re;leased later this year -- hopefully cheaper and hopefully still subtitled.

10/26 with English subs

I have a Region 3 Kitano Boxset from Alto Video, I believe. It has all of his films from Boiling Point through Zatoichi (that includes Kikujiro). Apart from the occasional subtitle error, it's a pretty good release.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I believe the Japanese DVD of Kikujiro will be re-re;leased later this year -- hopefully cheaper and hopefully still subtitled.

Thank you for the tip. I'll wait for the re release

yoshimori wrote:10/26 with English subs

The cover of the DVD looks like the Bandai Visual's cover but the Bandai Visual is in PAL format and on the edition details of the CD of Japan DVD it is mentioned that the DVD is in NTSC format.