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Takeshi Kitano's best?
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on December 2, 2023 at 10:59 AM
Writer/director Takeshi Kitano launched his film career with voilent crime stories in the late 80s. As the story goes, in the mid 90s he suffered a near fatal road accident which caused him to withdraw and become more introspective. He took up painting for a few years, then returned to cinema with the incredibly poetic and surprisingly sentimental gangster flick Fireworks (1997). It won him international acclaim and finally put him on the map as a great artistic filmmaker.
For a couple years, he shied away from the violence genre that gave him his start, even going so far as to remake the samurai story Zatoichi but purposely making all the blood look cgi fake (he said something about wanting the blood to look like a blossoming flower). Unfortunately this kinder gentler Takeshi didn't score points with the masses. A decade later he would return to his hyper violent roots with the (successful) Outrage trilogy. I read somewhere that he openly admitted that he was selling out, giving the people what they want.
To anyone else who has followed his film career, what do you think his high point was? Do you think his strength will always be violent crime flicks, or do you think he'll go down in history for his 10 year artistic period, 1997-2007?
I dunno the popular/critic's consensus, but for me his best work was this gorgeous film Kikujiro. It's basically the Japanese Amelie, except it came 2 years before Amelie. (Side note: Amelie's director Jean-Pierre Jeunet admits he's a huge fan of Japanese cinema, so....?)
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on December 2, 2023 at 5:44 PM
Thanks! You've just sorted a Xmas gift for Mrs Midi-chlorian Count 👍
Reply by rooprect
on December 2, 2023 at 5:58 PM
Yay! You mean you’re giving her Kikujiro? Or Amelie?
I’ve been looking for a USA playable bluray of Kikujiro but I don’t think one exists. Got the DVD though 👍
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on December 2, 2023 at 7:47 PM
Well she loves Amelie so I was thinking of getting this...
Having said that, I looked at the trailer after that last post and it seemed more a father / son (?) thing. So what's the similarities - whimsical styling, dream-ish characters, beautiful score?
Reply by rooprect
on December 2, 2023 at 8:16 PM
Yup I guess it's more of a father/son thing, although in this case the father figure is a foul mouthed ex-gangster who's stuck with the kid. The overall vibe is the same as Amelie though, it's about making others happy in otherwise tragic situations. Here the kid lost his mother, so the gangster and a crew of losers try their best to cheer him up in weird ways.
The score is MAGNIFICENT, that's the main reason I equate it to Amelie. Lots of simple yet emotional piano pieces by Joe Hisaishi (known for doing Spirited Away and the Studio Ghibli films). Here he is performing the main theme on piano... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0GN40EL1VU
Reply by Midi-chlorian_Count
on December 2, 2023 at 8:37 PM
Sounds good - maybe almost a touch of Life Is Beautiful in there as well by the sounds of that...
Anyway, I'll definitely try and track this down for Christmas. Thanks!
Reply by bratface
on December 2, 2023 at 11:15 PM
Good luck trying to find a physical copy! Everywhere I went I kept getting a 'no longer available/out of print' message.
But you can get the score at Amazon.
Reply by rooprect
on December 3, 2023 at 7:05 AM
Thanks for reminding me of that great movie, yup it's a lot like Life is Beautiful ...just without the killings & concentration camps 😬
Actually now that I think about it, if Amelie is her style then I'd recommend Kamikaze Girls which has the same look and feel: saturated colors, bizarre characters & quirky editing. It came out right after Amelie and was clearly influenced by it. You can immediately tell by the trailer HERE.
Kamikaze Girls is another great Japanese flick I've been hunting on USA blu-ray, but unfortunately the only copies are imports my player can't play. This country is pretty limited with what we get from overseas.
Nice tip, I might actually gift myself the score for Christmas. I also scan ebay every couple months because sometimes Korean companies manufacture region-free editions of obscure films, that's how I got some hard to find East European blu-rays. I wish we could chuck the whole stupid region coding thing!