Blog Archives

Outrage Beyond (2012)

(from , dir: )
Posted on June 10, 2013 by Justin

My first film at this year’s Sydney Film Festival was Outrage Beyond, the great Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s follow-up to 2010’s yakuza film Outrage. Set in the same universe of gangsters in pinstripes, black sedans and sudden violence, it picks up the story some years after the events of the first film.… (read more)

Comments Off on Outrage Beyond (2012)

Outrage (2010)

(from , dir: )
Posted on April 2, 2012 by Justin

The last film I saw from Japanese powerhouse director Takeshi Kitano was his wonderful update of Zatoichi in 2003. Since then, he’s made a trio of more personal films that some have described as his ‘surrealist autobiographical’ trilogy: Takeshis’, Glory to the Filmmaker! and Achilles and the Tortoise. This film marks his return to more commercial territory, the yakuza film, in which scheming mob bosses and ambitious young thugs do battle on the street.

Kitano plays Otomo, a … (read more)

Comments Off on Outrage (2010)

Dolls (2002)

(from , dir: )
Posted on April 29, 2007 by Alison

It seems that every time I mentioned that I’d seen Kitano Takeshi’s latest effort and liked it, someone said “You must be the only one!” I’d then have to point out that no, I wasn’t the only one, and if they’d seen it themselves they’d be able to offer an informed opinion. ‘Twas an education for me in how rumours get started.

So let’s deal with my impression of Dolls. Tearing into the bad stuff first, it did drag … (read more)

Comments Off on Dolls (2002)

Boiling Point (1990)

(from , dir: )
Posted on March 3, 2007 by Jason

Boiling Point is every Kitano fan’s dream; the humour, the action, the violence, the style, and the narrative, all scream trademark Kitano.

Boiling Point is narratively well crafted. Kitano has done what he always does, which is to create a film with heavy investment in extreme contrast. Often it is the contrast between ultra-violence and humour, or between dynamism and stillness, but in Boiling Point, character contrast is most explicit. The passive characters that make up the film’s baseball … (read more)

Comments Off on Boiling Point (1990)

Hana-Bi (1997)

(from , dir: )
Posted on January 25, 2006 by Alison

Hana-Bi can be considered quintessential Kitano, and is one of his most acclaimed, and most frequently acclaimed, works. It was made after Kitano’s brush with death in a motorcycle accident that left him partially paralysed for a time, and carries the painful awareness of irrevocable loss that I’ve come to associate with Kitano films.

Kitano is probably best known as a director of yakuza films, or at least is perceived that way. While there is a certain amount of gangster … (read more)

Comments Off on Hana-Bi (1997)

Brother (2000)

(from , dir: )
Posted on November 6, 2005 by Mark Morrison

I watched over 100 people die violent celluloid deaths today. It may have got to me. 67 of those died by bullet, knife, bomb, piano wire and/or chopsticks in Takeshi Kitano’s new film Brother.

This is actually the first time I’ve watched a Takeshi Kitano film. Gasps of shock, shaking of heads, tuts of tut-tut. Calls himself an Asian film reviewer and has yet to watch the greatest living director of Japanese yakuza as he paint the walls red? … (read more)

Comments Off on Brother (2000)

Sonatine (1993)

(from , dir: )
Posted on June 16, 2005 by Alison

This is one of Kitano’s finest films, despite its faults. It’s the first film in which he showed the gentleness and compassionate tolerance of human faults for which he’s become renowned, as well as the playfulness that sits oddly in a yakuza film.

The first half of the film drags a little: it’s mainly setting the scene and delineating the characters. Worthwhile, it’s true, but it could have been done in less time. Had Kitano made this film now, with … (read more)

Comments Off on Sonatine (1993)

Zatoichi (2003)

(from , dir: )
Posted on June 3, 2004 by Eugene

I am not a critic. I am a reviewer.

(It’s a line I’ve nicked off an article Steven Grant (an American comic book writer) once wrote in one of his forums. It being applicable, I thought I’d use it for myself.)

So why the distinction and why now? Well, the thing with being a reviewer is that all I really do is fulfil a consumer role — I basically recommend whether something is worth seeing or not. I’m not really … (read more)

Comments Off on Zatoichi (2003)