a film by Takeshi Kitano

a film by Takeshi Kitano
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Takeshis’ a film by Takeshi Kitano
2005 – Japan - 110’ – 35mm – Color – 1:85 – Dolby SR
photos downloadable at www.filmpressplus.com/surprise
© 2005 BANDAI VISUAL, TOKYO FM, DENTSU, TV ASAHI, OFFICE KITANO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
In Competition Surprise Film Venice 2005
Masters Toronto 2005
CAST
BEAT TAKESHI KITANO as Beat Takeshi,
the movie star, & Mr. Kitano, Beat’s
Blond Lookalike.
KOTOMI KYONO as Beat Takeshi’s
Girlfriend & Kitano’s Neighbor.
KAYOKO KISHIMOTO as the Woman at
the Mahjong Parlor & the Producer at
the Audition & the Bank Customer &
others.
REN OHSUGI as Beat Takeshi’s Manager
& the Taxi Driver.
SUSUMU TERAJIMA as Beat Takeshi’s
Long-time Acquaintance & Kitano’s
Yakuza Neighbor.
TETSU WATANABE as the TV Wardrobe
Master & the Noodle Cook & the
Auditioning Middle-aged Actor.
AKIHIRO MIWA as MIWA, the Singer.
CREW
written, edited & directed by
TAKESHI KITANO
costumes YOHJI YAMAMOTO
cinematography KATSUMI YANAGIJIMA
lighting design HITOSHI TAKAYA
production design NORIHIRO ISODA
sound design SENJI HORIUCHI
editor YOSHINORI OTA
1st assistant director TAKASHI MATSUKAWA
script supervisor KUMIKO YOSHIDA
production manager KENSEI MORI
casting TAKEFUMI YOSHIKAWA
music producer MISAKO NODA
music NAGI
sound effects KENJI SHIBASAKI
line producer SHINJI KOMIYA
producers MASAYUKI MORI
and TAKIO YOSHIDA
SYNOPSIS
Beat Takeshi lives the busy, and sometimes surreal, life of a show biz celebrity. But his blond
lookalike named Kitano, a shy convenience store cashier, is still an unknown actor waiting for
his big break. After crossing paths with Beat and a series of frustrating auditions, Kitano seems
to mysteriously fall into a fantasy state highlighted by aspects of Beat’s real life and violent onscreen persona...
BIOGRAPHY
Writer-director-actor Takeshi Kitano exchanged his trademark yakuza guns for a cane sword
of lightning-fast speed in 2003’s ZATOICHI. Directing a period piece for the first time, Kitano
revived the blind cult action anti-hero Zatoichi for a new generation worldwide. ZATOICHI won
numerous international awards, including Venice’s Silver Lion for Best Director and Toronto’s
People’s Choice Award.
Since 1997’s HANA-BI, Kitano has been recognized as a leading cinema figure. Among its
numerous awards, HANA-BI won Venice’s Golden Lion and was named Best Non-European Film
by the European Film Academy. HANA-BI was cited on numerous “Best Films of the Year” lists,
often in the premiere position.
In 2000, Kitano made BROTHER, his first film shot outside of his native Japan. Like BROTHER,
Kitano-directed films such as his debut VIOLENT COP (1989), BOILING POINT (1990) and
SONATINE (1993) centered around yakuza gangster characters. The filmmaker contrasted the
violence and action of those films with comedy or tenderness in films like A SCENE AT THE SEA
(1991), GETTING ANY? (1995), KIDS RETURN (1996), KIKUJIRO (1999) and DOLLS (2002).
As an actor, Kitano has also appeared in films which he has not directed himself. Most recently,
Kitano gave an award-winning leading performance in Yoichi Sai’s 2004 epic BLOOD AND BONES
(CHI TO HONE) and he appeared in Takashi Miike’s 2004 film IZO. Kitano’s acting first won
international attention for his role in Nagisa Oshima’s MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE
(1983). He collaborated again with Oshima in 1999’s samurai epic TABOO (GOHATTO). Other
credits include Japanese box-office smash hits Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku’s BATTLE ROYALE
II and Kinji Fukasaku’s BATTLE ROYALE. Kitano’s credits in films directed by non-Japanese
filmmakers include include Robert Longo’s JOHNNY MNEMONIC (US, 1995) and Jean-Pierre
Limosin’s TOKYO EYES (France, 1998).
Kitano was born in Tokyo in 1947 and entered show business in 1972 as “Beat” Takeshi, the
stage name he continues to use today as a performer. As part of the comic duo Two Beats, Kitano
was one of the leading figures in the manzai (stand-up comedy) boom in the late 1970s. With
his distinctive art of speech and his idiosyncratic perspective, Kitano became one of the most
popular entertainers in the country during the 1980s.
After an incredibly prolific and diverse 30-year career, Kitano continues to be one of the
foremost personalities in Japan. He participates in weekly TV programs (such as the exported
game show «Takeshi’s Castle» / «Most Extreme Elimination Challenge», originally aired in Japan
from 1986-89), as well as several TV films and specials per year. He has written a number of
novels and collections of short stories, essays and poetry. Also an accomplished cartoonist and
painter, Kitano’s artwork can be seen in HANA-BI and KIKUJIRO.
FILMMAKER
2005
2003
2002
2000
1999
1997
1996
TAKESHIS’
director, writer, editor
ZATOICHI
director, writer, editor
DOLLS
director, writer, editor
BROTHER
director, writer, editor
KIKUJIRO
director, writer, editor
HANA-BI (FIREWORKS)
director, writer, editor
KIDS RETURN
director, writer, editor
1995
1993
1991
1990
1989
GETTING ANY?
director, writer, editor
SONATINE
director, writer, editor
A SCENE AT THE SEA
director, writer, editor
BOILING POINT
director, writer, editor
VIOLENT COP
director
ACTOR
2004
2003
2003
2001
2000
1999
1999
1998
1997
1995
1995
1994
1993
1993
1990
1989
1983
BLOOD AND BONES
(Yoichi Sai)
ZATOICHI
BATTLE ROYALE II
(Kenta & Kinji Fukasaku)
BATTLE ROYALE
(Kinji Fukasaku)
BROTHER
TABOO
(Nagisa Oshima)
KIKUJIRO
TOKYO EYES
(Jean-Pierre Limosin)
HANA-BI (FIREWORKS)
FIVE OF THEM (GONIN)
(Takashi Ishii)
GETTING ANY?
JOHNNY MNEMONIC
(Robert Longo)
SONATINE
MANY HAPPY RETURNS
(Toshihiro Tenma)
BOILING POINT
VIOLENT COP
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE
(Nagisa Oshima)
TAKESHI KITANO ON TAKESHIS’
For years, I was working over an idea of a film I called Fractal. It’s a story about an ordinary
guy and events happening around him but at a certain point it takes on a weird twist. He enters
into an imaginary world in his consciousness, where he sees himself entering into yet another
imaginary world, where he, again, sees him entering into yet another world and so on and on.
The story unfolds as it interweaves between his real time actions and imaginary worlds in his
consciousness, multi-layered like a Baumkuchen cake. I had been keeping this idea for more
than a decade since around the time when I made my fourth directorial film Sonatine. Since
then I have been nudging my producers to green-light the project. But every time I asked, they
kept putting it off saying, “maybe next time,” until I changed the character, setting and plot and
called it TAKESHIS’. Their excuse for putting off the project for all these years was that it would
be creatively advantageous for me to make different kinds of movie as much as possible and
try out various ideas in them before I took on such an experimental project as Fractal. Which
sounds plausible enough but I suspect they were just afraid of making a so-called “difficult” film
with a complicated plot, which most likely just repels the audience. They thought it was a perfect
recipe for commercial disaster! I was convinced that was the case this time around. Because
when I proposed them last year, “Guys, about that Fractal movie, I decided to play the main
character myself rather than cast another actor. And also, I simplified the storyline a great deal.
What do you think?” they immediately replied, “That sounds great. Let’s do it!”
The biggest change I made for TAKESHIS’ from Fractal is the setting of the main character. I
opted not only to play the main character myself but also to set the protagonist as Beat Takeshi
/ Takeshi Kitano. I deemed that was the most effective way to depict characters realistically
given the unreal premise of the story. Of course, that does not mean that Beat Takeshi persona
portrayed in the film is the equivalent of my real self. The persona in the film is the amalgam of
the public image of Beat Takeshi that I assume the majority of the Japanese watching me on TV
and films would imagine me to be and the stereotypical “pompous big star” image that I assume
to be shared amongst the Japanese. I reconstructed the story with my utmost intricacy before
I set out for shooting but as it turned out my notorious habit of wanting spontaneity reared its
nasty head again and again while shooting and editing. When I finally completed the project,
what I felt was not so much a sense of having accomplished what I had always wanted for ages.
But rather, every time I review the completed film, I am surprised by the strange universe I
created on big screen and how it turned out to be way weirder than I had expected, despite of the
fact that I made the film myself! For those who are about to watch, please stop all your cerebral
activities and ‘feel’ and ‘experience’ the movie. And after you have done that, I would appreciate
it if you could watch it again before you start analyzing.
design: virginie thorel