Takeshi Kitano 北野 武
L'artiste tous azimuts
Acteur japonais le plus connu à l'étranger, Takeshi Kitano est cette figure du cinéma au visage à moitié paralysé par un accident de moto qui a joué dans plusieurs films de yakuza à succès, tels que Hana-bi, ou dans le célèbre film de samouraïs Zatoichi. Mais cet acteur sombre, habitué dans ses films à traverser des univers interlopes à l'humanité défaillante, est aussi un comique et un artiste.
BeatTakeshi, the manzai actor
After four years of engineering studies, Takeshi Kitano was hired in a nightclub where comic actors perform. Employed initially as an elevator repairman, he gradually learned theater art, notably by serving as a backup. It was at this time, in 1972, that he formed with his friend Niro Kaneko a manzai duo, "The two beats"!
Japanese comedy features an intelligent, poised character constantly snubbing the partner.
Takeshi Kitano will then take the stage name "Beat Takeshi." Success follows, and the rest is history.
Kitano at the cinema
In the 1980s, Takeshi Kitano began to venture into the cinema. He plays roles that will make him a star, a violent policeman, or the violent yakuza immersed in a dark world.
As a director, he produced films that made him the face of Japanese cinema abroad. In 1997, he directed Hana-bi, which brought him to the height of his international fame!
A woman with leukemia accumulates debts with the yakuza... to pay for her treatment and commits a robbery. This dark image will also be used in Battle Royale, where he plays the role of a vengeful professor at the helm of a massacre between classmates. On a more epic note, he will produce and perform the part of the renowned blind masseur-samurai Zatoichi!
The artist, the television man
Takeshi Kitano has flourished in many art forms. He is a passionate painter, many of which was integrated into the sets of the film Hana-Bi, and he has written collections of poems, and novels, some of which have been adopted by other filmmakers. He has also released several albums!
On television, Takeshi Kitano has produced several shows, mostly talk shows, and above all, a program of a hilarious maze of physical obstacle course, "Takeshi's Castle," the concept which became popular in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Brazil, the Netherlands, Iran, and Greece!
Read also: Watching TV in Japan.