{"id":314,"date":"2008-03-29T17:16:19","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T17:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skullcull.wordpress.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2008-03-29T17:16:19","modified_gmt":"2008-03-29T17:16:19","slug":"culture-vulture-takeshi-kitano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"Culture Vulture: Takeshi Kitano"},"content":{"rendered":"

\\\"takeshi<\/a><\/p>\n

My first introduction to Takeshi Kitano was through Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence<\/i> where he plays the Japanese guard that everyone could like. At the time I didn\\’t know his name and have to admit that I was watching the film for a certain Mr David Bowie. Still his acting left a definite impression and when I crossed paths with him again, so to speak, I recognised him immediately.<\/p>\n

My second introduction to him led me to one of the best film-makers in modern cinema — screw you if you don\\’t believe me. But seriously Hana Bi <\/i>or Fireworks<\/i> was an amazing film — managing to marry what might be called disparate elements into a beautiful cohesive whole. You have art, humour, violence and some of the most wonderful cinematography.<\/p>\n

It is a shame that most Western audiences will know Takeshi from his role in the awful Johnny Mnemonic<\/i>. He thankfully got a second bite at the cherry in an English speaking role with the film Brother<\/i>: an East meets West gangster film that manages to sidestep the cliches which can plague that genre.<\/p>\n

He was the head teacher in Battle Royale<\/i> and gives a powerful performance there. He is a popular comedian in his own country, a director, an actor, and an artist: a true polymath. Every film that he is in he owns — he is something of an Eastern equivalent to Clint Eastwood\\’s quiet drifter that brings justic. He sometimes doesn\\’t say much in a film but when he does, as with when he moves and acts — the economy of his movements and speech seem to be that bit more explosive than if he had bulled around inside the roles. Zatoichi<\/i>, his take on the blind samurai is a masterclass in this: it offered a fresh alternative to the wire-work heavy films House Of Flying Daggers, <\/i>and Hero.<\/i><\/p>\n

There are similarities in a lot of the characters he plays but there is always some interesting quirky angle that he approaches the story telling from — some impressionistic touch that he throws into the mix. He is at once an emotional and an aesthetically savvy director; whilst as an actor he calls to mind the aforementioned Eastwood and sometimes Lee Marvin.<\/p>\n

Go hunt down his films: watch the quiet centre explode with colour and violence.<\/p>\n

—————-
\nNow playing: The Mission – To love and to kill with the very same hand<\/a>
\nvia FoxyTunes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first introduction to Takeshi Kitano was through Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence where he plays the Japanese guard that everyone could like. At the time I didn\\’t know his name and have to admit that I was watching the film Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13,16,20,42,60,121,171],"tags":[493,494,548,764,1038,1209],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-artists","category-beat-takeshi","category-blogging","category-culture-vulture","category-film","category-people-watching","category-updates","tag-film-films","tag-film-hick","tag-hana-bi","tag-movies","tag-takeshi-kitano","tag-zatoichi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/skullcull.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}