Takeshi Kitano DVDs review

[Cyrus]

Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano is a Japanese ex-TV comedian, ex-TV game show host and general clown in the past, who now directs movies. Usually, the movies include himself in the title role and are also written by him. The movies are about violent men, and when they're not, they still contain what the critics call 'gratuituous violence', for which us admirers are thankful. All his movies show an easy and masterful grasp of cinematic language. Kitano is a completely fearless director who will stop at nothing style-wise. Beneath his films, even his most violent ones, lie tenderness and deep humanity, but not of the sort that will be found in sugary Western movies. Kitano is a humanist even when he offers no redemption, or even a glimmer of hope. By the way, his face, made out of weather-beaten granite, is a cinch for yakuza or cop roles.

I have almost all the 'Beat' Kitano movies in DVD and by now I have learned the Jap words for "a**hole", "hello" (a grunt really, don't they drink their coffee?), "shoot'im", etc. For those who want something beyond cartoon violence, idiotic moralising, or predictable plots, here is someone who walks the path of Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Aldrich, and I dare say Sam Peckinpah. So, out of 5 max spades:

Violent Cop Kitano is a rogue cop who resorts all too easily to unorthodox methods. He's up against ruthless gangsters, one of whom, a particularly sadistic one, gets on a vendetta course and abducts the cop's sister, forces her to drugs and to gang rape. There's a scene where the cop has the wounded yakuza on the ground but won't shoot him until he has the gun's nozzle inside the yakuza's mouth! The yakuza struggles not to allow the gun into his mouth. [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

Hana-bi A cop with a wife slowly dying of cancer, faces off the gangsters and his wife predicament. The cop will rob a bank to get the money to take her to a farewell voyage to the mountain Fuji. There's a scene where two thugs call over Kitano's cop from high above the beach and the cop is without a gun, so he just puts his handkerchief in his pockets along with a rock and then walks slowly, casually, humbly up the slope till he's face to face with the sardonically smiling gun-toting yakuza. [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

Boiling point A small time baseball player now working at a gas station gets at the wrong end of the yakuza gangs and goes to Okinawa to get a gun. He meets up with a former yakuza (Takeshi) who also wants to get back at the Mob. Things will inevitably reach their inevitable climax. There are some nice torture scenes. [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

Sonatine A group of gangsters find thmeselves isolated near a beach, stuck between the power plays of their superiors and their rival gangs. They are pawns in this and they are dispensable and they know it. They have to pass the time there lying low somehow. There are scenes where the gangsters come off as everyday children at everyday violent play. [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

Brother Kitano's American film and it's the weakest, for me, of the lot, if by a little. The theme of loyalty is again paramount. Kitano's yakuza is self-exiled to the U.S. after a failed power play by his superiors and goes to meet his brother there, and soon starts to take over turf from the natives, starting with the niggers, moving up to the spics and ultimately the dagos. Inevitably the gook will lose. The payoff offers some saving grace but overall I didn't enjoy the film , the first Kitano film I found to be a little forced. There's a scene where Kitano's non-English-speaking Jap bumps a black passerby in the street. The man starts complaining loud so he gets his eye pierced by a Japanese food stick. (The same man later in the film proves to be a truer brother to Kitano's gangster than the real brother.) Also, there's a scene near the end in a roadside cafe, where the yakuza pays his bill, adding a lot of extra "For the damages" and then goes out the door to face off the Mafia's goon squad who proceed to machine gun the joint and himself. [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]

His next movie to hit the theatres will be a completely uncharacteristic movie (if there's anything characteristic about Kitano) straight out of Japanese puppet theatre. Very delicate and very esoteric is the word. Called of course Dolls. A film magazine once called Takeshi Kitano as someone who doesn't give a damn about his career -- which is as good a recommendation as they come.

--Cyrus

PS : Most often, in gangster movies, you have an Unstoppable Force meeting an Unmovable Object. They are usually the cop and the bad guy, or vice versa. What happens then? Well, for a very interesting solution to that eternal dilemma, you could check out another Japanese movie, Dead or Alive, but be warned: it's definitely not for the faint hearted, or the faint stomached.

[Mark Heide]

Cyrus,

I'll see if I can find one of the four spades. But, I'll check the Asian section at my local vid rentals. Did you happen to see "Branded To Kill" by Seijun Suzuki. Suzuki was fired after he made this film for Nikkatsu because he didn't follow the advice of the company and decided to make a real film. This is a japanese ganster flick with shootings, sex, and humor. It has everything. You have to follow the subtitles well or watch it a few times.

Mark