Kitano Takeshi
DeconstruactAilng Violence
Kitano Takeshi
• Born on 17, January 1947
• His father, Kikujiro, was a
house painter, a failed
yakuza (?)
• Excelled in math and
science, though he was a
college drop-out.
• Found a job at France-za, a
striptease club - being
elevator operator and
bringing in customers.
Kitano Takeshi
• France-za, striptease theatre, incl. magic, standup comedy, short comic play
• Tutored by Fukami
Senzaburo to be a
comedian.
• Kitano came at the end
of the illustrious list of
Asakusa entertainers
since the pre-war period
- Enomoto Ken’ichi,
Furukawa Roppa,
Atsumi Kiyoshi,
Hagimoto Kin’ichi.
Kitano Takeshi
Asakusa Comedians
Kitano Takeshi
• With Kaneko Kiyoshi,
Kitano formed a duo
standing comedian team,
Two Beats.
• Anarchic stage
performance - full of
black homour,
discriminatory jokes,
obscene words and
actions breaking
broadcasting ethical
codes, though popular.
•
Two Beat
Kitano Takeshi as Actor
• 1969 Yuke Yuke Nidome no Shojo (Go, Go,
Second Virgin) by Wakamatsu Koji (as extra)
• http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=9cAH_J8JQw4
• 1980 Makoto-chan as voice actor
• 1981 Danpu Wataridori (Truck Driver
Wanderers) as a supporting actor
• 1981 Manon by Maeda Yoichi
• 1981 Sukkari Sono Ki de (Completely Serious)
Main character
• 1981 Natsuno Himitsu (Secrets of Summer)
Kitano Takeshi as Actor
• 1983 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence as Sgt.
Hara
Kitano Takeshi as Director
• Violent Cop (1989)
• Directed by Kitano Takeshi
• Written by Nozawa Hisashi
(and Kitano Takeshi
uncredited)
• Photographed by Sasakibara
Yasushi
• Edited by Kamiya Nobutaka
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Boiling Point (1990)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
and Toshio Taniguchi
• Shochiku Fuji and Bandai
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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A Scene at the Sea 1991)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Office Kitano
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Sonatine (1993)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Shochiku Dai’ich Kogyo
Kitano Takeshi as Director
• Getting Any (1995)
• Directed by Kitano
Takeshi
• Written by Kitano Takeshi
• Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Office Kitano
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Kids Return (1996)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Office Kitano, Bandai, Ota
Publishing
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Hana-bi (1997)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yamamoto Hideo
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
and Ota Yoshinori
• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV
Tokyo, Tokyo FM
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Kikujiro (1999)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
and Ota Yoshinori
• Office Kitano, Bandai,
Nippon Herald, FM Tokyo
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Brother (2000)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
and Ota Yoshinori
• Bandai, Office Kitano, FM
Tokyo, Little Brother Inc.
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Dolls (2002)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
Edited by Kitano Takeshi
Designed by Isoda Norihiro
Costume by Yamamoto Yoji
Office Kitano, Bandai, TV
Tokyo, FM Tokyo
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Zatoichi (2003)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Office Kitano, TV, Asahi
Asahi Broadcasting Co. FM
Tokyo, Dentsu
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Takeshi’s (2005)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Costume by Yamamoto Yoji
• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV
Asahi, FM Tokyo, Dentsu
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Kantoku Banzai (2007)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by Yanagishima
Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Office Kitano, Bandai, Dentsu,
TV Asahi, FM Tokyo
Kitano Takeshi as Director
• Achilles and the Tortoise
(2008)
• Directed by Kitano
Takeshi
• Written by Kitano Takeshi
• Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Design by Isoda Norihiro
• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV
Asahi, FM Tokyo
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Outrage (2010)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi,
Ota Yoshinori
• Design by Kurosawa Kazuko
• Office Kitano, Warner Bros.
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Outrage beyond (2012)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi,
Ota Yoshinori
• Design by Kurosawa Kazuko
• Office Kitano, Bandai Visual,
TV Tokyo, Warner Bros.
Kitano Takeshi as Director
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Outrage (2010)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by Yanagishima
Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi and
Ota Yoshinori
• Costume by Kurosawa Kazuko
• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV
Tokyo, FM Tokyo, Omnibus
Subversion of Genres
• Action Film (Cop and Yakuza) - Violent Cop
(1989), Boiling Point (1990), Sonatine (1993),
Haba-bi (1997), Brother (2000), Zatoichi (2003),
Outrage (2010), Outrage beyond (2012)
• Youth Film - A Scene at the Sea (1991), Kids
Return (1996)
• Melodrama - (A Scene at the Sea ), (Hana-bi)
(1997), Dolls (2002)
• Slap-stick Comedy - Getting Any? (1995)
• Drama on himself - Kikujiro (1999), Takeshi’s
(2005)
Subversion of Genres
• What makes Kitano auteur – making mainly
action films, his films deconstruct genre
conventions.
• In his action films, purposes of violence
disintegrate – meanings of violence obfuscated –
no definite purpose and meanings of violence
• His melodrama – romances are not about love but
about the loss of its meaning
• His (autobiographical) films are not about himself,
but fictionalize, mystify, and obscure himself.
Subversion of Genres
• Conventional cinema concepts and traditional
genre formulae are questioned, distorted and
demolished.
Subversion of Genres: Violent Cop
• Violent Cop as an cop action thriller
• A lone police officer attempts punish a criminal
organization and his own corrupt institution,
taking justice into his own hands (in the tradition
of Dirty Harry, French Connection)
Subversion of Genres: Sonatine
• Sonatine as a yakuza action thriller
• A Tokyo yakuza was commissioned to take his
men to Okinawa to settle the local dispute between
two clans only to find that this is a set up. While he
is away, others can take over his territory. (The
Yakuza Paper and other gangster films)
Subversion of Genres
Deviation from the rules of the genre
featuring violence and violent actions
Movies with Violent Actions
• Devoid of catharsis functioning of violence
(Catharsis - Aristotelian concept of pleasure
obtained by releasing heightened tension)
→ e.g. justice is done through fulfilling a violent
revenge
Subversion of Genres
→ violence as a spectacle
→ violence as a game
→ violence as a means to satisfy sadistic /
masochistic desire
Subversion of
Genres
• Violence and revenge
• e.g. Godfather
• The horse that a Hollywood producer owns and
loves is beheaded and placed in his bed, because
he refused to use Don Corleone’s protégé for a
film.
Subversion of Genres • Justice taken into one’s
own hands
• Dirty Harry
• A San Francisco Police
Inspector, Harry
Callahan, as tough as
nail, is assigned to catch
a serial killer. He
employs legally dubious
violent methods to carry
out his duty. They bring
out satisfaction among
the audience.
Subversion of Genres
• Violence as a spectacle
• e.g. Bonnie and Clyde
• Well-choreographed deaths of the hero and
heroine which provokes sadness and sympathy
among the audience.
Subversion of Genres
• Violence as a game
• e.g. Tarantino’s films
• Virtual violence devoid of reality. Virtuality
and the lack of reality make violence more
acceptable.
• Violence as a means to
Subversion of Genres
satisfy sado-masochistic
desire
• Ultima grida dalla
savanna (1975)
• A pseudo-documentary
about every sort of
shocking events
• The film satisfies the
audience’s hidden sadomasochistic desire or
tendencies.
Subversion of Genres
Violent Cop
• What is the purpose of
violence in this film?
• Punishment - this purpose
is undermined by the
excessive violence shown
by the cop.
The cop and the gangster
are equal in their
obsession with violence.
Subversion of
Genres
• Revenge - loses its meaning when it loses its sight
of what to achieve.
The cop kills his own sister at the end of the
film.
• Good and evil interchangeable
Subversion of Genres
• Meanings of violence are further undermined by
the frequent inclusion of jokes.
• Ambiguity of violence
Its function
Its morality
• Ambiguity in attitudes towards violence criticizing or romanticizing? Demystifying or
glorifying?
Subversion of Genres
Sonatine
• Opaqueness in narrative, inner psyche of the
characters, and motivation for their actions
• Obvious death wish of the protagonist - where
does it come from?
Subversion of Genres
• Absurd and irrational
• No explanation of motives: no cause and effect
→ Make the meaning of violence unclear and
ambiguous.
Subversion of Genres
• A retired cop robs a bank in order to give his
former colleague, who is now wheelchair bound
after he received injury on duty, compensation.
He also kills yakuza from who he borrowed
money.
• Why does Nishi have to
Subversion of Genres rob the bank?
• For the needs of his wife
who is dying from
leukemia?
• To pay back the money
that Nishi and his
colleague borrowed from
the yakuza?
• What were the need for
money?
Subversion of Genres
• Why does Nishi have to kill yakuza?
• Is that because he owes them money and cannot
repay? Or because they have insulted him?
• Why did he borrow money to start with?
Kitano and Other Genres
• Melodramas A Scene at the Sea and Hanabi - blocking the audience from involving
in the actions of the film.
• Love unfulfilled because of death or being
overshadowed by death
Kitano and Other Genres
• A Scene at the Sea
• A part-time garbage
collector, who is deaf and
mute, finds a cracked
surfboard. He practices
surfing and his girlfriend,
who is also deaf, watches
on. Summer turns autumn.
One rainy day, the girl
sees her boyfriend
surfboard but not him.
Kitano and Other Genres
• Scarcity of dialogues
• Lack of emotional highs and lows
• Alienate the viewer as the characters in the film
are emotionally alienated.
Kitano and Other Genres
• Hana-bi
• Action/Melodrama or
Action/Melodrama/Comedy
• The film refuses fundamental classification
Kitano and Other Genres
• Sentimental - but interruptions, ellipses,
discontinuities, and frequent flashbacks in
narrative prevents the viewer from identifying
with characters in the film.
Kitano and Other Genres
• Biographical and auto-biographical films
• Kikujiro is based on the memory of Kitano’s father,
Kikujiro, but its accuracy is doubtful.
• It includes many biographical and autobiographical
elements, but they are unreliable.