Takeshi Kitano – About The Man

“Beat” Takashi Kitano Born in 1947, in a working class area of Tokyo, Takeshi was the youngest of four sons, His father was a house painter, whom Takeshi remembers coming home regularly drunk.

Growing up his greatest role models were Japanese baseball players, and the local Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), far from being hated by the young Takeshi, he remembers fondly the influence of the Yakuza men on the local community, asking if he and his friends were being helpful to their families, and not to drink, smoke or do drugs, which is in total opposite to the activities of the Yakuza themselves, Takeshi thought they were clever, and we have since seen the Yakuza influence in many of his films.
Takeshi`s mother encouraged him to go to university, and he took up a course in Mechanical Engineering, although he dropped out soon after starting to become a “Beatnik”, after a short time he moved to Japan’s equivalent of Soho, where he harboured an ambition to become a comic entertainer, Whilst working as an MC at a strip club he met another struggling entertainer, and they soon teamed up to become “The Two Beats” (Beat Takeshi and Beat Kiyoshi).

Together the “Two Beats” gained a cult status very quickly in the 1970`s, But soon Takeshi started to overshadow his partner, and after many arguments they split up, with Takeshi starting a solo career dabbling in radio and TV (Takeshi and Kiyoshi did team up one last time in Sonatine)
Over the years “Beat” Takeshi has grown in status in Japan, so much so that he is probably the best known person in the country, but strangely he is best know there for his comedy work, and not his films that get critical acclaim in Europe and the US.

In the 1980`s “Beat” appeared as a serious actor in two TV mini films, one as a real life serial killer, and the other as a religious cult leader, The Japanese were shocked to see their favourite comedian playing such serious roles. On the Japanese launch of “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” many Japanese film goers actually laughed at Kitano`s performance, thinking it was a comedy.
The Japanese public was shocked further more in 1986, when a popular magazine “Friday” published photographs of Takeshi meeting another woman, whilst he was married, Takeshi in a rage got his “Takeshi`s Army” (A team of devout followers of his comedy, who will pretty much do anything for him) to raid the offices of “Friday” and disrupt publishing by letting off fire extinguishers etc, which was shocking to such a quiet, respectful nation as Japan.

Takeshi`s promotion to the directors chair happened by accident, Takeshi was cast as an actor in the film “Violent Cop” and argued many times with the directors current filming scheduling, because he was so busy elsewhere, He asked the producer to decide who they wanted, – him or the director, and Takeshi won, the producer asked as a joke if Takeshi would now direct it, and he said “yes”, he re-worked the script, and made the film available today.
Takeshi`s filmmaking style is very different to most, as he rarely does more that one take during filming, and if he cant get a certain expression from an actor, he will simply move the camera, so he cant see the actors face !

On the second of August 1994, The Japanese public were further shocked when Takeshi took a bend too fast on his scooter, and hit the central reservation, Takeshi suffered brain injuries, and skull fractures, He was taken to a local hospital and put in intensive care for over a month. He had massive facial injuries when he emerged, and many thought he wouldn’t work again. Due to his rehabilitation from his injuries, Takeshi started to draw and paint, his artwork is critically acclaimed, and actually appears in his film “Hana-Bi”

Quentin Tarantino has taken some influence from Beat Takeshi Kitano`s film making, and even rolled out Sonatine in the US for him, on his own publishing label, to try and get him more well known in the west.