Explosive and unpredictable to the extreme, Kitano’s immense lifetime of work has cultivated his legendary image among cult audiences across the globe. An icon of Japanese cinema, Kitano’s boundary-pushing directorial success is famously shadowed by his highly popular comedy personality ‘Beat Takeshi’ on Japanese television. Composed of exclusive interviews and archival footage with significant figures such as Akira Kurosawa and David Bowie, this dynamic documentary presents a stark portrait of what led to Kitano’s fruition into an artist obsessed with gunning self-expression and the darker truths of the Japanese condition. From the yakuza street gangs of a war-torn city to winner of a Golden Lion in Venice, director Yves Montmayeur condenses an incomprehensibly vast personality into momentary clarity.
"I think what makes [Kitano] so appealing is that each time, we are never sure what he is going to do in his next film, or work.” “He is completely unpredictable."
- Director Yves Montmayeur, in an interview for JAPAN Forward
Saturday 30th September
73 min
CTC
Yves Montmayeur
Film Festival
Palace Verona
