|
Takeshi Kitano born January 18, 1947 in Umejima, Adachi, Tokyo) is a Japanese comedian, actor, presenter, author, poet, painter, one-time video game designer, film editor and film director who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. With the exception of his works as a film director, he is known almost exclusively by the name Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし, Bīto Takeshi). Since April 2005, he has been a professor at the Graduate School of Visual Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
Kitano owns his own film company, Office Kitano, which launched Tokyo Filmex in 2000. Kitano's films are typically dramas about Yakuza gangsters or the police, referred to by critics as being highly deadpan to the point of near-stasis. He often uses long takes where nothing appears to be happening, or with edits that cut immediately to the aftermath of an event. Many of his films express a bleak or nihilistic philosophy, but they are also filled with a great deal of humor and remarkable affection for their characters. Kitano's films paradoxically seem to leave controversial impressions. While formally disguised as dark comedies or gangster movies, his films raise moral questions and provide food for thought.
While Kitano's international fame continues to rise, the Japanese public knows him primarily as a TV host and comedian.[citation needed] His portrayal of Zatōichi in the 2003 movie is said[weasel words] to be his biggest domestic commercial success.
During interviews, Kitano is careful to hide his enigmatic personality behind the mask of being a comedian and regular guy. He hosts a weekly television program called Beat Takeshi's TV Tackle (ビートたけしのTVタックル), a kind of panel discussion among entertainers and politicians regarding controversial current events. But Kitano's primary role is to provide comic relief and he rarely shares his true feelings regarding controversial social issues. Although he interviewed Shoko Asahara, founder of the controversial Japanese religious movement Aum Shinrikyo, on at least two occasions,[citation needed] his attitude towards religion is unknown.[
Early life
Kitano was born in Adachi, Tokyo in 1947. After dropping out of Meiji University, where he studied engineering for four years, he found work as an elevator operator in a nightclub and learned a great deal about the business from the comedian Senzaburo Fukami. When one of the club's regular performers fell ill, Kitano took his place on stage, and a new career was born.
In the 1970s he formed a comic duo with his friend Kiyoshi Kaneko. They took on the stage names Beat Takeshi and Beat Kiyoshi; together referring to themselves as Two Beat (sometimes romanized as The Two Beats). This sort of duo stand-up comedy, known as manzai in Japan, usually features a great deal of high-speed back-and-forth banter between the two performers. In 1976, they performed on television for the first time and became an instant success, propelling their act onto the national stage. The reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitano's material, which was much more risqué than traditional manzai. The targets of his jokes were often the socially vulnerable, including the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, children, women, the ugly and the stupid. Complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitano's jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. Kitano confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden.[1] Although Two Beat was one of the most successful acts of its kind during the late '70s and '80s, Kitano decided to go solo and the duo was dissolved. Some autobiographical elements relating to his manzai career can be found in his film Kids Return (1996).
Many of Kitano's routines involved him portraying a gangster or other harsh character, and his first major film role, Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (where he starred opposite Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie) featured him cast as a sadistic POW camp sergeant during World War II.
|