Actor, comedian, director, and writer, born in Tokyo, Japan. After completing his studies at Meiji University in 1965, he had various jobs which included working as a janitor and as an elevator boy in a strip club. In 1972, while at the club, he met Kiyoshi Kaneko, and together they formed a comedy duo called The Two Beats. The Two Beats quickly became the alternative comedians of their day, with their irreverent and risqué routines. In the early 1980s the duo split up, and Kitano made his film debut in Danpu Wataridori (1981). He first received international attention for his role in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983). Later films include Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and Gonin (1995). He made his directorial debut in 1989 with the thriller Violent Cop. Later films as a director include Boiling Point (1990), A Scene at the Sea (1991), Sonatine (1993), Hani Bi (1997), and Kikujiro no-Natsu (1999, Kikujiro's Summer). He appears regularly on Japanese television, and is a prolific writer of both books and magazine columns.
Takeshi Kitano|
Takeshi Kitano at Cannes, 2000 |
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| Born: |
January 18, 1947 Adachi, Tokyo |
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| Occupation: | Televison personality, actor, author, film director, film editor, film producer, screenwriter |
| Spouse: | Mikiko Kitano (former manzai comedian) |
Takeshi Kitano (北野 武, Kitano Takeshi, born January 18, 1947) is a Japanese (quarter Korean) comedian, actor, presenter, author, poet, painter, one-time video game designer, and film director who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work.
Kitano's films are usually dramas about Yakuza gangsters or the police, referred to by critics as being highly deadpan to the point of near-stasis. Kitano's films paradoxically seem to leave controversial impressions.
While Kitano's international fame continues to rise, the Japanese public knows him primarily as a TV host and comedian.
During interviews, Kitano is careful to hide his enigmatic personality behind the mask of being a comedian and regular guy. But Kitano's primary role is to provide comic relief and he rarely shares his true feelings regarding controversial social issues. Kitano confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body naked during a show while it was totally forbidden .
Early life
Kitano was born in Adachi, Tokyo in 1947. When one of the club's regular performers fell ill, Kitano took his place on stage, and a new career was born. The reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitano's material, which was much more risqué than traditional manzai. Complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitano's jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. 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.
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 WWII.
Film career
After several other roles, mostly comedic, in 1989 he was cast in the lead for Violent Cop (Sono Otoko, Kyōbō ni Tsuki) as a sociopathic detective who responds to every situation with violence. When the original director (Kinji Fukasaku) fell ill, Kitano offered to step in, and rewrote the script heavily. The result was a financial and critical success in Japan, and the beginning of Kitano's career as a filmmaker.
Kitano's second film as director and first film as screenwriter, released in 1990, was Boiling Point (3-4X Jūgatsu). He and a friend travel to Okinawa to purchase guns so they can get revenge, but along the way they are befriended by a psychotic gangster played by Kitano, who has his own revenge to plot. With complete control of the script and direction, Kitano uses this film to cement his style: shocking violence, bizarre black humor and stoically shot 'still' scenes.
Kitano's third film, A Scene at the Sea (Ano Natsu, Ichiban Shizukana Umi), was released in 1991. Kitano's more delicate, romantic side came to the fore here, along with his trademark deadpan approach.
Foreign audiences (that would outnumber his domestic audience in the coming years) began to take notice of Kitano after the 1993 release of Sonatine. Kitano plays a Tokyo yakuza who is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war there.
The 1995 release of Getting Any? (Minna Yatteruka!) showed Kitano returning to his comedic roots. Much of the film satirizes popular Japanese culture, such as Ultraman or Godzilla and even the Zatoichi character that Kitano himself would go on to play eight years later.
In August 1994, Kitano was involved in a motorcycle accident and suffered injuries that caused the paralysis of one side of his body, and required extensive surgery to regain the use of his facial muscles. Kitano put any such thoughts to rest by making Kids Return in 1996, soon after his recovery.
After his motorcycle "accident," Kitano took up painting. 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.
Kikujiro (Kikujirō no Natsu), released in 1999, featured 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. Brother (2001), shot in Los Angeles, had Kitano as a deposed Tokyo yakuza setting up a drug empire in L.A. Despite a large buzz around Kitano's first English language film, the film was met with tepid response in the US and abroad. Dolls (2002) had Kitano directing but not starring in a film with three different stories about undying love;
Between the underwhelming response to Brother and Dolls, Kitano became a punching bag for the press in the United States, who wondered if he had lost his ability to make a good film. Criticism was less severe in Europe and Asia though many commentators were not as lavish with their praise as they had been with previous Kitano films. 2003's Zatoichi, in which Kitano directed and starred, silenced many of these dissenters. With a new take on the character from Shintaro Katsu's long-running film series, Zatoichi was Kitano's biggest box office success in Japan, did quite well in limited release across the world, and won countless awards at home and abroad, including the Silver Lion award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival (the same award earned by Kurosawa for his Seven Samurai).
Kitano's latest film, Takeshis' was released in Japan in November of 2005 with an unusual tagline, reading "500% Kitano - Nothing to Add!" Kitano also stars regularly in other films. and Kitano in Battle Royale (2000), a controversial Japanese blockbuster set in a bleak dystopian future where a group of teenagers are randomly selected each year to kill each other on a deserted island. He also appeared in the film adaptation of William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic, although his on-screen time was greatly reduced for the American cut of the film.
Kitano is a regular collaborator with composer Joe Hisaishi, who has created scores for many of his films.
Family
older brother: Masaru Kitano (北野大, Kitano Masaru, May 29, 1942 -) - commentator, tarento and professor at Meiji University. wife: Mikiko Kitano (北野幹子, Kitano Mikiko, 1951 -) - former manzai comedian. She got married to Takeshi Kitano in 1980. daughter: Shoko Kitano (北野井子, Kitano Shōko, October 5, 1982 -) - former singer and actress.Other work
Kitano has written over fifty books of poetry, film criticism, and several novels, a few of which have also been adapted into movies by other directors.
Kitano was also notorious for four video games put out by Nintendo Famicom (NES) including Takeshi no Chousenjou (Takeshi's Challenge) by Taito Corporation. Takeshi's Castle, a game show hosted in the 1980s by Kitano featuring slapstick-style physical contests, has gained cult popularity in the United States (where portions are broadcast on Spike TV as MXC, formerly Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) and in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom where it was given a voiceover by Craig Charles.
The now internationally acclaimed Takeshi Kitano was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Science in engineering by Meiji University on September 7, 2004, 34 years after he dropped out to pursue his career in entertainment. San tai yon ekkusu jugatsu) (aka Jugatsu in France) 1991 A Scene at the Sea (あの夏、いちばん静かな海, Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi) 1993 Sonatine (ソナチネ, Sonachine) 1995 Getting Any? (みんな やってるか！, Minnâ-yatteruka!) 1996 Kids Return (キッズ・リターン, Kizzu ritān) 1997 HANA-BI (aka Fireworks in North America) Golden Lion award winner at Venice Film Festival 1999 Kikujiro (菊次郎の夏, Kikujirō no natsu) 2000 Brother (aka Aniki, Mon Frère in France) 2002 Dolls (ドールズ, Dōruzu) 2003 Zatoichi (座頭市) Silver Lion award winner at Venice Film Festival 2005 Takeshis'
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