I just got through twiddling my thumbs through Takeshi “Beat” Kitano’s film Dolls, the most excruciatingly slow and painful film I’ve seen since…uh…let me see…uh…Brother, directed by…oh wait, that was also a Kitano film. Hmmn, notice a pattern here? I don’t know, I keep giving this guy a chance, and I thought for some reason this one might be different, especially seeing as how the blank-stare acting shtick of Kitano wouldn’t be making an appearance, and just like I thought a film by Kitano set in gangland Los Angeles would be different, but no more. No more chances. I’ve been bitten one too many times. I can see the comments already: oh but wait, Zatoichi will be different. You know what? I don’t care. There are only so many hours in the day and I have none left to give Kitano in the hopes that he might surprise me.
Just had to get that off my chest.
Hey, man… 🙂
First of all, I have to tell you that I certainly respect your position. There is much (if not all) in kitano’s movies that I could see people hating.
On the other hand, I love them. 😉 The reason I love them is because he concentrates almost solely on creating an ambiance, a feeling, and using imagery and human expression to convey it. Sometimes more is said when people under-act than when they try to really express things, and I love his movies because they do exactly that.
One of my favorites is Kikujiro, not because the plot is anything special, in fact partly because it’s not. I love it because I get to see takeshi standing there and staring blankly, and I know what he’s thinking and feeling. He’s feeling the weight of the world, and through that, the happiness of a little boy starts to peek through.
I honestly see how someone might be at the same time perfectly justified in saying his movies suck, I just don’t see it that way.
You know, maybe it’s partly because of my nostalgia for that part of my life lived in Japan, very filled with depression, loneliness, lack of purpose, hopelessness, yet, sometimes seeing rays of hope. I think a lot of Japanese experience this sort of view of things at one point or another, and there is a sort of masochistic beauty in exquisitely expressing one’s emotional pain. That’s what I see kitano doing in these films….. I always feel down after seeing them, but I also feel that I’ve been reconnected with my past again in a way, and I regain a strong and heavy visceral understanding of the unexpressed emotions felt by those in the hopeless areas of their minds. I see that pain in takeshi; I see the weight of the world, and that gives meaning and context to the relationships and people that he interacts with in the films…
Just my 2 cents. 😉
double ditto to you, trevor…
Yeah, come on Kurt, you ole curmudgeon!!
Sure Beat’s flicks are not edge-of-your seat stuff but I don’t mind telling you that twe here at gaijinworld shed more than a few tears at Dolls, watched only recently. And Kikujiro is without question in the top five best films we’ve ever seen. At once the funniest, saddest, most thought provoking film we’ve seen in at least seven years.
When judged against popular film as it stands today, certainly Kitano films are miles from the paradigm. But then again we’ve gotten so used to being spoonfed plots in huge clumsy mouthfuls that we have forgotten the pleasure of nibbling.
You could consider his films to be sort of jigsaws with lots of pieces missing so that viewers can fill the spaces in with their own thoughts. That can annoy some people, but as many will be delighted. At least every person gets something different from them.
When held in their true light – film as art – some of them are world-class pictures. His camerawork alone is absolutely awesome at times.
Oh, but yeah, Brother was utter shit, sorry, forgot to put that in.
thanks for the considered replies!
i purposely didn’t elaborate on my comments for fear of taking the sting out of my rant, but…
let it be said that I prefer contemplative movies to edge of your seat ones, the films of my favorite film director of all time Eric Rohmer were once famously referred to as akin to “watching paint dry”. I think Akerman’s 201 minute Jeanne Dielman is one of the best films I’ve ever seen, which one could derisively refer to as being about cutting up potatoes! And I would have no problems sitting through Andy Warhol’s 8-hour Empire (nothing but the Empire State Building for 8 hours). (I did see an hour excerpt once and was riveted, and watched it again!). So you can see that my “paradigm” is miles away from most folks’. And I do view film as an art.
But Dolls was sheer torture, because the slowness, the blank stares, the mute meanderings, had no fucking purpose that I could see. There was nothing “sad” or poignant about what I saw, and the only tears shed were about the 100 minutes I wasted. It was extremely pretentious, and arch. All this stuff about the couple walking through life tethered to one another. Argh!
A woman tries to commit suicide because her fiance dumps her at the behest of his family so he can marry his way to success with his new wife’s father’s company. Okay, good enough to start with, I was interested. But it quickly descended into a film about people staring straight ahead, blankly. Any interest I had was sapped almost from the get-go.
Sorry, more ranting but I can’t collect my thoughts together enough to give you guys a considered rebuttal. And actually, I’d probably have to watch the film again to do so, and I’m definitely not going to do that again!
I saw Hanabi and liked it – you should give that one a try! (just kidding)
Brother does look crap-no interest in watching it at all.
And you know, I wanted to watch Mononokehime (Princess Mononoke) for the longest time, and that was tripe too. Although other movies by the same guy (Miyazaki?), were quite fun.
I couldn’t disagree with you more, Kurt. Although I’ve yet to see DOLLS (and have heard many bad things about it), I remain a big fan of Kitano’s film output. Like a few people mentioned, KIKUJIRO is also one of my favorites, but I’ll also admit to having liked BROTHERS.
I don’t know if you have ever seen the original Zatoichi television show, but I grew up with it and it was one of my favorite programs as a kid. It is one of those shows where the main actor (Shintaro Katsu) IS the character he plays (like Audrey Hepburn IS Princess Anne in “Roman Holiday” or Peter O’Toole IS Lawrence of Arabia in “Lawrence of Arabia”). Katsu was a consumate and truly great actor, with a charisma and burly look that fit perfectly with the Zatoichi character. He made the idea of a blind swordsman completely believable. Every time an episode ended you could just feel the chills ripple up your spine from the sheer ferociousness and indifference of the swordsman killing people who were doomed from the moment they challenged him.
And I’m afraid that Kitano just doesn’t have that. He’s attempting to steal the limelight of a great actor and a great show by jazzing up the scenes and modernizing the story. Kitano himself just doesn’t carry that toughness and that mean look that Katsu naturally carried. And whereas Katsu’s character also emitted a sense of regret over his mastery of swordsmanship and killing, from Kitano’s earlier films I have the sense that Kitano enjoys displaying cruel violence. That’s why I hated “Brother” so much. Kitano was simply mean and enjoyed publically backlashing at Americans by saying shocking things on screen. His Battle Royale movies, though I haven’t seen them fully, glorified in killing. I think Kitano is disgusting, especially when he tries to pull it all off as “art”. He’s a publicist, not a great actor.
I will hold the original Zatoichi in my heart and pretend Kitano doesn’t exist.
Well, I must admit, DOLLS lost me totally. I’m sure it was wonderfully deep and full of symbolism, but buggered if I could get it! That said however, I didn’t find it so unwatchable that I wouldn’t consider giving it another chance.
KIKUJIRO has been mentioned a number of times in these replies, and I’ll confess to having a weak spot for this little treasure as well. I found the score especially beautiful.
All in all, I have enjoyed more of Kitano’s films than not, as actor & director, and thought his A SCENE AT THE SEA (Ano Natsu, Ichiban Shizukana Umi) an absolute masterpiece.
I look forward to seeing Zatoichi.
Just couples of Info.
Battle Royale is not a Kitano movie. It’s a Fukasaku one. And it is not only killing. There is much in that movie than peoples thought. It’s the style of Fukasaku (bang i your face).
Beside, yes there was a ZatoichiTV show, but start to 1962 to approx. 1975, there were 25 movies made for cinema.
I like Tarkovsky (a lot) as well as martial arts films or any genre films (not all the genre films of course, now it tend to be pretty boring). So i got no problems with contemplative films neither with convention of genre.
But about Kitano, i am a little bit tired of his way to direct and edit. The Ellipse trick begin to be a little bit always the same.
By the way, yes, Katsu is great (not only in Zatoichi, just watch Hitokiri by Gosha for example).
Just thought I’d add to my last comment here that I have since seen Zatoichi, and while it contained many enjoyable moments it did not live up to my expectations. I’ve made more comments on this on my own blog.
To correct Chris D., there were actually 26 Zatoichi films. The 26th film was made in 1989, 16 years after the 1973 “Shin Zatochi monogatari: Kasama no chimatsuri”.
Ok, ok, no more chances. But I’ll still add my 2 cents…
I consider myself a big Takeshi fan, but that certainly doesn’t mean I blindly adore all of his work. I loved Sonatine, Hanabi, and Kikujiro. Sure, Kikujiro had its schticky moments, but for me it captured that wonderful feeling of being a kid on summer vacation.
Brother was crap. I cringed at the ending, when Omar Epps is in the car “emoting.” It’s unfortunate that this has to be Takeshi’s most widely available film in the US!
A Scene at the Sea and Kids Return aren’t masterpieces, but I’d recommend them. Neither feature Takeshi or Yakuza plots.
As for the rest of the crime films, (Violent Cop, etc.), they all strike me as unpolished experiments on the path to getting Sonatine and Hanabi right.
I liked it 😛
(I’m embarassed to re-read what I wrote and realise I’ve never seen any of the originals *cringe* 🙂
I certainly liked it a lot more than most Hollywood films I’ve seen recently (eg the League). Wait ’til it comes out on DVD so you won’t feel so judgemental – Japanese ticket prices make an unenjoyable movie twice as bad huh.