[KFCC] Takeshi Kitano Interview

Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi is THE man in my book. He was one of the driving individuals that opened my eyes to the world of Japanese cinema, and has kept me coming back time and again with each new movie he directs or stars in. His movies are known for the signature short bursts of violence, long and quiet character profiles, his cool poker-faced look, often beautiful scenery, and symbolic images. Kitano is an actor and director well known for his depiction of Japanese gangsters; however his talent extends much more beyond this realm, as movies like “Kikujiro” and “Dolls” prove that he has the capacity to depict compassion and love as well.

He is the man behind Aniki’s smooth rage in “Brother,” the brains behind the slapstick comedy “Getting Any”, the heart behind Masao’s companion in “Kikujiro,” and Murakawa’s fun and ruthless demeanor in “Sonatine.” Among other classics such as the controversial Battle Royale, and the award winning Hana-Bi, to many other films, Kitano has made a name for himself through the countless films that he has directed, featured, and starred in.

I've had the opportunity to ask Takeshi several questions about himself, his movies, and his goals. I bring you the man, the legend, Takeshi Kitano!

Enjoy the interview.

[KFCCinema]: I’m a very big fan of yours and I’m honored to be able to conduct this interview with you, and I’d like to thank you for taking some time off from your busy schedule to do so.

[Takeshi Kitano]: Thank you.

[KFCC]: First of all, tell us a little about yourself, and how you eventually got your start in movies?

[T.K.]: I have never dreamt of becoming an actor or a director when I was a kid. For that matter, I wasn’t even interested in movies when I was young. I’ve always been and still am a comedian at heart and still feel awkward at being called actor or director.

I am from a typical working-class neighborhood of Eastern Tokyo, generally referred to as Shita-machi, where most grown-ups were either yakuza or craftsmen, including my father, Kikujiro, who was a housepainter officially but quite dodgy kind. My mother, on the other hand, had worked as a housemaid in prominent families before she married him and was a very strict woman and was obsessively determined to have her children get higher education, which she believed was the only resort to get out of the poverty we were living by then. As a kid, she never allowed me to do fun stuff, whether it’d be comics or even novels. And naturally movies were out of the question.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was one the first movies I worked as an actor. It was in the early 80’s, a couple of years after Manzai (two-man stand-up comic act) boom in Japan and I had just started doing TV shows on my own apart from the stand-up comic duo I was in named Two Beats and was becoming huge on Japanese TVs. When Mr. Oshima offered me to play in his movie, I knew who he was and what he did but had not met him in person. I hardly knew about his works except his notorious temper on set. But I was curious enough to see how it would turn out. So after an initial conversation with Mr. Oshima, I called up Ryuichi Sakamoto, whom I knew was offered a role as well, and we both conspired to tell him, “Mr. Oshima, I’ll do it if you promised me to never scream at me on set. If you shout at me just once, I’m out of the project right there and then, Okay?” And Mr. Oshima agreed and there we went flying to Rarotonga Island to shoot the movie. On set we are two nearly amateur actors, hardly memorizing lines and repeatedly being messed up during the take and Mr. Oshima couldn’t scream at us for he had sworn not to do so. What he did instead was to turn his frustration onto other actors by scolding them for mistakes I made! For instance, when I stuttered my line, he would turn to my co-star and go, “why are you like that? It’s your fault Takeshi couldn’t deliver his lines!” Well, after a while I felt sorry for them enough to straighten up my behavior. Throughout the shooting, I basically enjoyed observing how weird and over-the-top a film director behaved on set and never did I imagine myself becoming one in the years to come!

I sort of become a director by accident. Violent Cop, which turned out to be my directorial debut, was going to be directed by Mr. Kinji Fukasaku starring myself as the protagonist. However, before we come to the shooting, we had a conflict of schedule. Mr. Fukasaku wanted me to put my TV schedule on hold and concentrate on this project for the whole shooting weeks. Whereas I couldn’t do that because I had half a dozen regular weekly TV shows so I made a counter-proposal whereby we would do the film shooting for 10 days then put film shooting with my call on hold for the next 10 days during which I could work on my TVs. He refused the idea and eventually dropped himself off from the project. Then one of the producer proposed, "Why don't you direct the film in accordance with your schedule?," which I accepted. Just like that. I didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge because although I had no experience in directing a movie, I had been very much involved in directorial side on my TV comedy sketches. I had often instructed directors of my shows in camera angles or divisions of shots. I thought, “I could easily do it with a single camera for movies ‘cause I’ve already done it with 5 cameras on my TV shows!”

[KFCC]: Your movies carry a certain artistic and original feel to them, is there any particular message you try to convey in your movies that you’ve directed?

[T.K.]: I don’t set out to make any specific message or statement in any of my films. I believe that once the film is completed, it longer belongs to just filmmaker but to the audience. And they are free to interpret them however they want to. And every interpretation is correct in its own right.

[KFCC]: Is there anything that inspires you to make the movies that you make?

[T.K.]: I don't go lock myself away for a month when I'm writing. Sometimes I come up with a scene when I'm out drinking with friends or on long flights to-and-fro Europe or America and I just take a note of it in a notebook. The way I conceive a film is to come up with the four stages or images of the film like a four-strip cartoon in a comic. Introduction, development of the story, twist of the story and punch-line. It's a very rough idea of just four images of the story, which act as the backbone of the story.

After the four images, I develop the idea by augmenting spaces between them with sub-images or plot lines until it became a substantial script. A lot of the detail comes even when I'm shooting. On good days, I clearly can see sequences to be shot on next days, which is like playing the sequences with film projector in my head and after that the shooting and editing are just the way of realizing those ideas.

[KFCC]: Are there any other actors or directors that you’ve admired now or when you were growing up? If so, would you say that they’ve influenced your acting or directing style?

[T.K.]: Like I said, when I was a kid I watched very few movies. I was a filmmaker before I started watching other people’s movies. To tell you the truth, it was not until I started directing my own movies and doing interviews for the promotion that I started to watch films frequently. Since I started presenting my films in international film festivals, I was overwhelmed by quantities of ‘influence’ questions. "Are you influenced by Godard?" or "Have you ever seen the films by Melvil?" or “How do you think about the works of Kurosawa, Ozu…? Embarrassed by the fact I hadn’t seen any of these director’s movies, I was ‘forced’ to watch other director’s movies!

Every now and then, I would come across films, which I like, but I don’t think I am particularly influenced by any of the directors who made those movies. Because a director who made the films that I like also made the films that I do not like. I like "Seven Samurai" and "Rashomon" by Kurosawa, "Pierro Le Fout" by Godard, "I Clown" by Felini. But they all made films that I found disappointing. Besides, I don’t really enjoying watching films as much as I did making them. Because, when a film is rubbish, I would go, “shit, give me back my time I wasted on this piece of shit!” and when a film is good, I would go, “shit, that’s an excellent idea a director did there, the guy beats me to it!” So every time, I am a little irritated than before I watch a movie either way.

I consider myself the biggest fan of Takeshi Kitano and also the severest of the critics. In that sense, the biggest influence is probably none other than myself. The films, which I am influenced by the most, would be my films, especially the flopped ones.

[KFCC]: After your motorcycle accident, did you ever feel that you just had to give up, and since you’re still here doing what you do, how did you overcome that feeling?

[T.K.]: Right after I regained consciousness from the accident, I was told from doctors that I could’ve been dead with what I had gone through. I thought, “well, that’s surely something. You read about those who had survived near fatal accident, suddenly get artistic or philosophical or religious revelation. I might turn into a genius!!” But to my disappointment, I haven’t changed at all! I’m still doing stupid stuff on my TV comedy, making films nobody wants to watch!

[KFCC]: You were in Nagisa Oshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” which garnered you international appeal. This led to a role in “Johnny Mnemonic” a few years ago; do you have any plans to appear in any future US productions?

[T.K.]: Nothing particular at the moment. I had enough “US production” experiences to not being desperate to seek another one. I mean I would do it if something very interesting comes up but otherwise there’s no point in doing it for the sake of it.

As an actor, my first Hollywood experience, obviously, was Robert Longo's Johnny Mnemoric. I was all excited to go there and appear in Hollywood film, but honestly, the whole experience turned out to be like going to Disney land and having to go back home without being able to ride on a roller coaster or any other attractions that are there. I got the impression that film-making process in Hollywood is like a one big factory in which a director is merely a factory manager. On the contrary, film-making process in Japan, or at least with my film, is more like a handicraft manufacturing in which a director is a master craftsman and can get his hands on every elements. On top of that Hollywood film directors often do not have the right to decide the final cut. I mean, for me, editing is the most important part of film-making and it is the most enjoyable yet tormenting part in film-making. And I can hardly imagine myself giving up the part I enjoy the most.

Some years later I made BROTHER, which was going to be my “first English film and a directorial Hollywood debut.” But in retrospect, what was eventually made was “my first ‘partly’ English film and a usual Japanese production which ‘happens’ to be shot mainly in California but could have been shot anywhere in North America.” At least for me, it wasn’t all that different or difficult than my Japanese production films although my producer and my Japanese key crew members wouldn’t necessarily agree. Thanks to Jeremy Thomas, who co-produced the film with my Japanese producers, I was able to have the final cut to the film and to bring my veteran key crews, from my first A.D., Cinematographer, Lighting Designer, Production Designer, Sound Designer to my tattoo artist, to the States.

[KFCC]: Is there anything you’d like to get into aside from acting and directing?

[T.K.]: You mean, aside from those two ‘plus’ being a comedian and writer? Well, I was lucky enough to succeed in TV and movies and writing but my musical career haven’t come close to the success I enjoy with doing TV or making movies or books! I did have one Japanese top 10 single, though.

[KFCC]: Can you tell us anything about your new film Zatoichi, and what it was like re-inventing this much loved character?

[T.K.]: This project was proposed to me quite unexpectedly by Madame Chieko Saito, one of my mentors during my Asakusa period. She was a very good friend of the late actor Mr. Shintaro Katsu, who starred in the original episodes of the Zatoichi series on film and TV (from 1962 to 1989). A few years ago, she asked me if I would make a Zatoichi sequel. It sounded interesting because I had never directed a period piece. When she asked me she also wanted me to play the lead character, I panicked. There was no way I was going to replace Mr. Katsu! I politely declined, but Madame Saito wouldn't take no for an answer. I finally gave in on one condition: I would have to be allowed to make the film the way I wanted as long as the main character remained a blind masseur named Zatoichi who is also a master swordsman and a dice-gambling genius. Everything else would have to be entirely my own creation.

My screenplay was not based on a story from any of Mr. Katsu's ZATOICHI films. I also saw no point in impersonating Mr. Katsu's version of Zatoichi. I set out to create a new version that would be as different as possible both physically and psychologically. Mr. Katsu's Zatoichi had dark hair, dressed in a plain-colored kimono and carried a brown cane sword. Although this worked well in his time, I thought I would make my Zatoichi conspicuously different visually. My Zatoichi is actually a pretty eccentric person. He has platinum blond hair and a blood-red cane sword. Also, in terms of mentality, my Zatoichi is far more emotionally detached from the other characters. Mr. Katsu's Zatoichi was more about almost heart-warming relationships he made with the good and meek townspeople. Mine doesn't fully mingle with the good guys. He just keeps slaying bad guys!

[KFCC]: Are there any upcoming projects that you will be directing or starring in that you could possibly give us any information about?

[T.K.]: Nothing’s concrete at the moment. I got a couple of feature productions as an actor coming up next year. So I’ll have to put my directing career on hold for a year or so. My latest film, Zatoichi, somehow turned out to be my biggest box office success in Japan. And my feeling tells me my next directorial movie will most likely be the polar opposite of that.

[KFCC]: I’ve noticed that in all your movies, there is always the presence of the sea. I find the sea to be a very calming experience; is there some sort of reason behind why you incorporate it into each of your films?

[T.K.]: I use the beach scene in all my films because I like the tension exuding from picture by putting human characters in front of ocean. Human beings are considered the most evolved life form and all the living creatures came from the sea. In ancient times, there were very simple bacteria, which went on to evolve into fish and then moved on to land and evolved into the human being. And if the human being is the most advanced evolution of all living creatures, by putting him on the beach, it gives you a strange tension between the ocean and the human. With all the material complications that the characters face, it's as if the ocean is questioning the human and asking 'Are you really that evolved after all these years?' I like that tension. I never let the characters swim joyously. I just make them stand in front of it.

That is my philosophical and abstract answer. But more practical version of my answer is, because I am on TV every night in Japan, it’s virtually impossible to shoot in crowded city streets without having to be asked for autographs or photographs on set. When you shoot a film in what basically is a chain of small islands of a country like Japan, you eventually get to the ocean.

[KFCC]: If you had to pick a single word that describes you best, what would that be and why?

[T.K.]: ‘Ungraspable. ‘ That’s my motto as an entertainer.

[KFCC]: Can you explain why sometimes you’re referred to as “Beat Takeshi,” and other times “Takeshi Kitano?”

[T.K.]: The “Beat” alias came from the stand-up comic duo Two Beats, that I was in during the 70’s and early 80’s. I adopted my real name Takeshi Kitano much later, when I started directing films in ‘89. Until then, I had been known as Beat Takeshi among the Japanese public. By the time of my second film, Boiling Point, I noticed that kinds of films I wanted to make as a director were completely different from what the public expected of ‘Beat’ Takeshi, the nationally popular comedian. And the public image of ‘Beat’ Takeshi is so widely spread in Japan that it worked against my directorial films. So I decided to work under my real name, Takeshi Kitano, for director’s credit.

[KFCC]: Do you watch your own movies, and if so, which one would you say is your strongest and favorite role? And what role would you like to take on in the future?

[T.K.]: I hardly watch my movies except when I had to. It’s not an enjoyable experience because you can’t help noticing mistakes I made!

[KFCC]: Do you have any hobbies or activities that you like to engage in, that help you get away from the stresses of work?

[T.K.]: I don’t really get much stress from work because I don’t consider them as work really. Going to studios and record TV shows, for me, is like kids going to playground or old people going to hospitals. And filmmaking for me is the most luxurious toy that I have ever had. Apart from my daily activities, I’ve been taking up tap dancing again in the last couple of years. I used to tap dance when I was a comedy apprentice. It was one of those Gene-Kelly, Fred-Astaire type of dancing. I had stopped doing it for ages until I met THE STRIPES, with whom I collaborated on Zatoichi. The leader of the Stripes studied tap dancing in New York from a master who also taught Gregory Hines. I was impressed by their New York style dancing, which is much more rhythmically intricate and intense than the old style I learnt back in the 70’s.

[KFCC]: I’d like to thank you once again for taking some time to conduct this interview with me. Good luck to you and all your future projects.

[T.K.]: Thank you.

Special Thanks:
Naoyuki Usui (Office Kitano - Film Production Division)

Office Kitano Web Site: http://www.office-kitano.co.jp/

Daniel Nguyen
12/01/2003