Takeshi Kitano
Director, Actor
- Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
- Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano
- David Bowie endures the hardships of a Japanese POW camp in WWII. Stylish melodrama, memorably scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
- Violent Cop (1989)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano
- Popular entertainer 'Beat' Takeshi's directing debut is a stylish, witty yet cynical and disturbing elegy to violence executed with alarming…
- Boiling Point (3-4x10) (1990)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano
- Director 'Beat' Takeshi captures the relentlessly simmering tensions between yakuza factions mainly focusing on a docile gas station attendant and a…
- Scene at the Sea, A (1991)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Kuroudo Maki, Hiroko Oshima, Sabu Kawahara…
- One from dir. Kitano’s (HANA–BI) quieter side, this fable of deaf–mute garbageman’s obsession with surfing is deceptively minimal,…
- Sonatine (1993)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Ayo Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe
- Those familiar with 'Beat' Takeshi's films will know what to expect from this latest elegy to gangster violence. His personal demons manifest in…
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
- Dir. Richard Longo
Feat. Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T…
- Keanu Reeves as futuristic cyber courier, dude! Aimed well below the high–concept, author William Gibson gleefully cannibalizes much of his…
- Kids Return (1996)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Ando Masanobu, Kaneko Ken
- Two feckless delinquents discover the local boxing–gym, which provides inspiration for one and an entry into a yakuza gang for the other.…
- Hana-Bi (1997)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osusi
- 'Beat' Takeshi cements his reputation as the modern visionary of Japanese cinema with his most celebrated film to date, returning as the formidably…
- Kikujiro (Kikujiro no Natsu) (1999)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano
- An uncharacteristically easy–going, episodic road movie from one–man movie machine, Beat Takeshi, whose impassive screen persona snugly…
- Gohatto (Taboo) (1999)
- Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. Takeshi Kitano
- Visually stunning evocation of the tensions in a samurai–training school in 1860s Japan, with Kitano playing a captain who agonises over his…
- Brother (2000)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Omar Epps
- Dir. Kitano’s first US film fuses his touch for wincingly intense violence with a ironical, comic streak that plays off the dynamics of the…
- Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) (2000)
- Dir. Fukasaku Kinji
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama, Tatsuya Fujiwara…
- This hyper–kinetic, violent satire from Japan courted controversy (and a fair swag of hype) for its ‘irresponsible’ premise and searing…
- Dolls (2002)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Miho Kanno, Tatsuya Mihashi
- Beautiful to behold with its spectacular Japanese vistas, but unfocused in content, dir. Takeshi stumbles with an art film that feels stranded…
- Zatoichi (2003)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano
- Actor–director–cult hero Takeshi Kitano stylishly revives a hero of well–known Japanese mythology and scores his most broadly…
- Blood and Bones (Chi to hone) (2004)
- Dir. Yoichi Sai
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Joe Odagiri
- Harrowing biopic about the life and times of an infamous first–generation Korean immigrant who came to Japan in the 1920s and by dint of his…
- Takeshis' (2005)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi…
- Returning to his comedic roots, dir. Takeshi Kitano springs layer upon layer of self–reference and in this conceptually ambitious, though…
- Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema) (2007)
- Dir. Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August
- 35 auteurs convey the meaning of cinema in less than three minutes each, in this epic commission to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film…
- Outrage (2010)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Renji Ishibashi, Ryo Kase
- Aging Japanese hard–man Takeshi Kitano returns to the turf of his international film celebrity – the minimalist Yakuza movie – in…
- Beyond Outrage (2012)
- Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Ryo Kase
- A straightforward sequel to Takeshi Kitano's late return to the yakuza genre, continuing the bloody battle between police and rival gangs.
As with…
- Ghost in the Shell (2017)
- Dir. Rupert Sanders
Feat. Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano…
- Shot in New Zealand, this Westernised live action adaptation of the iconic Japanese franchise has Scarlet Johansson as the prototype…