Kitano Takeshi
Deconstructing 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.
• 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 Beat.
• Anarchic stage
performance - full of
black homour,
discriminatory jokes,
obscene words and
actions breaking
broadcasting ethical
codes, though popular.
•
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHIAMY
wfcM
Kitano Takeshi as Actor
• 1969 Yuke Yuke Nidome no Shojo (Go, Go, Second
Vergin) by Wakamatsu Koji, as an extra
• http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=9cAH_J8JQw4
• 1980 Makoto chan (Makoto) as voice actor
• 1981 Danpu Wataridori (Dump Migratory Bird) by
Sekimoto Ikuo
• 1981 Manon by Maeda Katsuhiro
• 1981 Sukkari Sonoki De (Completely with That Air )
• 1982 Natsuno Himitsu (Secret of Summer)
• 1983 Senjo no Merry Christmas (Merry Christmas, Mr.
Lawrence) by Oshima Nagisa
•
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=LoV3rgyG2i4
Kitano Takeshi as Director
• Sono Otoko Kyobo nitsuki
(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
• 3-4x10gatsu (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
• Ano Natsu, Ichiban
Shizukana Umi (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
•
•
•
•
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
• Min’na Yatteruka!
(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
•
•
•
•
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
•
•
•
•
Hana-bi (Firework, 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
• Kikujiro no Natsu (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
•
•
•
•
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
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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
•
•
•
•
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
•
•
•
•
Takeshi’s (2005)
Directed by Kitano Takeshi
Written by Kitano Takeshi
Photographed by
Yanagishima Katsumi
• Edited by Kitano Takeshi
• Costume by Yamamoto Yoji
• Offfice Kitano, Bandai, TV
Asahi, FM Tokyo, Dentsu
Kitano Takeshi as Director
•
•
•
•
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
Subversion of Genres
• Action Film - Violent Cop (1989), Boiling Point
(1990), Sonatine (1993), Brother (2000),
Zatoichi (2003)
• Youth Film - A Scene at the Sea (1991), Kids
Return (1996)
• Melodrama - (A Scene at the Sea ) Fireworks
(1997), Dolls (2002)
• Slap-stick Comedy - Getting Any? (1995)
• Biographical Drama - Kikujiro (1999), Takeshi’s
(2005)
Subversion of Genres
• What makes Kitano auteur is not his consistent
themes but his deconstruction of them.
• Not violence but how he deconstruct it.
• Not love but how he deconstruct it.
• Not life styles of young people but how he
deconstruct them.
• Conventional cinema concepts and traditional
genre formulae are questioned, distorted and
made ambiguous.
Subversion of Genres
• Violent Cop as an cop action thriller
• A lone police officer attempts to bring justice
against a criminal organization and his own
corrupt institution (Dirty Harry, French
Connection)
Subversion of Genres
• 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 Catharsistic 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
• Michael Colreone kills a mafia boss and a
corrupt police cooperator who have nearly got
his father assassinated.
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. Talantino’s films
• Virtual violence devoid of realistic meanings
Subversion of Genres
• Violence as a means to
satisfy sadomasochistic desire
• Ultima grida dalla
savanna (1975)
• A pseudo-documentary
about every sorts of
shocking events.
Subversion of Genres
Violent Cop
• What is the purpose of
violence in this film?
• Punishment - this
purpose is undermined
by the abuse of violence.
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 coexistence of humour and 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.
Kitano and Other Genres
• Melodramas A Scene at the Sea and
Fireworks - refusing the involvement of the
audience 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.