Takeshis
I...I see.
Posted by: Gaunt, September 11, 2005 04:32 PM
So, what I get from this is Takeshi Kitano wanted to make a movie about what it is to be Takeshi Kitano.
So in this movie are two characters I will call Takeshi and Takeshi Prime. Takeshi is rich and famous, a successful director and movie star. He has nice cars and nice women. Takeshi Prime is a struggling actor wannbe with no car and no women. Takeshi Prime dreams of being Takeshi, or perhaps, he dreams of being the person the media has portayed Takeshi to be. Takeshi Prime dreams of being the characters that Takeshi plays.
Only, see, Takeshi Prime doesn't really exist. He's just a dream of Takeshi's.
The big director's subconscious trying to imagine what feelings he must generate in more common people. Takeshi Prime is the Takeshi that was, perhaps, the Takeshi who had not yet achieved fame.
Or something. I dunno. Monkey.
A kid and his toy box
Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 9, 2005 06:09 PM
Takeshi Kitano
Thursday September 9th, 9:30AM
Ryerson
First off, the Ryerson got new seats! This was necessary, as watching a 2 hour movie there last year was an exteme sport. The X Games Presents X-TREME BUTT NUMBNESS.
Ok, so imagine your friend, Takeshi Kitano takes you to a new theme park and you go on this roller-coaster together. The ride starts and starts clanking up a hill, and Kitano-san leans over and says "you'll like this, it's unusual". Then you hear a wrong sounding *clank*. and the car starts rolling backwards. Is this supposed to happen? You look over but Takeshi gives no clue. You're going too fast. It sounds like the breaks are off. The ride's gone completely off the rails. This can't be right, is this all part of the ride?
This is what it's like to watch Takeshi's. You're never sure if this is all part of the plan, or if the movie's taken the express bus to cracktown.
Takeshi plays a caricature of himself, as well as a struggling actor who looks remarkably like the famous director. Movie industry sychophants, primadonnas, gun molls and yakuza both real and cinematic round out the excelent cast.
Takeshis' is a metidataion on celebrity, those who have it and those who covet it. But this is no somber polemic, it is a surreal masterpiece. Takeshi as a director is like a kid who wants to show you his favourite toys. His movies are always playful, and even if you have no idea what's going on, they are visually and aurally stunning. The brilliant use of sound effects blended in to the sound track and used to link scenes in last year's Zaitoichi is both subdued and expanded in this movie.
In short, I think this is a movie for people who love movies. If you're looking for setup-joke-exposition-explosion-gunfight-carchase filmmaking, this isn't it, but if you're willing to let a director take you on a trip, where you can't always see where you're going, I think you'll enjoy Takeshis' (also, there are lots of gunfights).