Takeshi Kitano

Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country. After several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989's Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine (1993). He was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda.

Violent Cop (1989) original poster.

In 1989 Kitano was set to star in a police thriller that was to be directed by gangster film veteran Kinji Fukasaku. When Fukasaku had to leave the film, the film's producers offered Kitano the directing chores. He reworked the script and the result was Violent Cop, a deliriously violent masterpiece that brought him recognition in the international film community. With this film Kitano would introduce his lean directorial style, punctuated by long takes, minimal dialogue, and stark compositions. He would also develop what has become the archetype Kitano persona, the taciturn but oddly likable antihero who is just as likely to speak with his fists as with his voice. This uneasy mix of playful comedy and savage violence would become a trademark in his later crime movies.

Kitano's second film as director and first as screenwriter was Boiling Point released in 1990.  It was Kitano'sfirst film as a screenwriter. Boiling Point is seen as an important first step in his development as an edition and as a director. The original title, 3-4X Jugatsu, is the final score of a baseball game played in the film. "Jugatsu" (October) was added to the title, because the most exciting games of baseball, play-off games, are played in October.

Shot from Violent Cop.

Kitano's third film, A Scene at the Sea, was released in 1991. It follows a deaf garbage collector who is determined to learn how to surf after discovering a broken surfboard. Kitano's more delicate, romantic side came to the fore here, along with his trademark deadpan approach. The film garnered numerous nominations and awards, including Best Film at the prestigious Blue Ribbon Awards. It also started a long-running collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi, which would last until 2002.

Although 1993's Sonatine did poorly in Japan, it received rave reviews in Europe when it was shown at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Kitano plays a Tokyo yakuza who is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war there. He is tired of gangster life, and when he finds out the whole mission is a ruse, he welcomes what comes with open arms. All four of his films were screened at the 1994 London Film Festival.

Shot from Sonatine (1993).

In August 1994, Kitano was involved in a motorscooter accident and suffered injuries that caused partial paralysis of the right-side of his face. As reported by Dan Edwards, Kitano later said that the accident was an "unconscious suicide attempt". Kitano made Kids Return in 1996, soon after his recovery.

After his motorscooter accident, Kitano took up painting. His paintings have been published in books, featured in gallery exhibitions, and adorn the covers of many of the soundtrack albums for his films. His paintings were featured prominently in his most critically acclaimed film, 1997's Hana-bi. Although for years already Kitano's largest audience had been the foreign arthouse crowd, Hana-bi cemented his status internationally as one of Japan's foremost modern filmmakers. Although it was not a big success financially, it won the Golden Lion award at the 1997 Venice Film Festival.

Shot from Hana-bi (1997).

Among his most significant acting roles were Nagisa Oshima's 1999 film Taboo, in which he played Captain Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi. Kikujiro, released in 1999 and named after his father, was a semi-comedy featuring Kitano as a ne'er-do-well crook who winds up paired up with a young boy looking for his mother, and goes on a series of misadventures with him.

We could continue for so long talking about all Kitano's movies, like for example his movie Brothers (2000), the first American co-production directed by Kitano and the first American co-production in which he was an actor, that even without a big recognition from the public, finally made of him a largely appreciated character also in the western culture, putting him on the podium as the best contemporary Japanese director.

Here you are his complete filmography as a director hyperlinked to every movie in Wikipedia.

Films

• Violent Cop (1989)
• Boiling Point (1990)
• A Scene at the Sea (1991)
• Sonatine (1993)
• Getting Any? (1995)
• Kids Return (1996)
• Hana-bi (1997)
• Kikujiro (1999)
• Brother (2000)
• Dolls (2002)
• Zatōichi (2003)
• Takeshis' (2005)
• Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
• Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)
• Outrage (2010)
• Beyond Outrage (2012)
• Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen (2015)
• Outrage Coda (2017)