Kitano Takeshi, a contemporary icon of Japanese cinema, is to receive a lifetime achievement award next month at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy.
“A legendary artist on Friday the 29th of April will receive the Golden Mulberry Award for lifetime achievement on the stage of Feff 24,” the festival announced Friday with barely concealed delight.
Kitano who has film credits as writer, director, producer and performer, as well as a whole TV comedy career, is known for the brutal sergeant he played alongside David Bowie and Sakamoto Ryuichi in Oshima Nagisa’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and for incursions into Hollywood in “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Ghost in the Shell.”
His Japanese oeuvre ranges from fine art to gangster genre thriller. He has credits in film noir (“Violent Cop”), romance (“A Scene at the Sea”), drama masterpieces and hard-boiled cult saga “Outrage.”
“For Far East Film Festival 24, a truly...
“A legendary artist on Friday the 29th of April will receive the Golden Mulberry Award for lifetime achievement on the stage of Feff 24,” the festival announced Friday with barely concealed delight.
Kitano who has film credits as writer, director, producer and performer, as well as a whole TV comedy career, is known for the brutal sergeant he played alongside David Bowie and Sakamoto Ryuichi in Oshima Nagisa’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and for incursions into Hollywood in “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Ghost in the Shell.”
His Japanese oeuvre ranges from fine art to gangster genre thriller. He has credits in film noir (“Violent Cop”), romance (“A Scene at the Sea”), drama masterpieces and hard-boiled cult saga “Outrage.”
“For Far East Film Festival 24, a truly...
- 3/18/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
For much of its running time, “Asakusa Kid” is a safe, traditional and easily enjoyable biographical drama about the scrappy early career of legendary Japanese comedian-actor-author-filmmaker “Beat” Takeshi Kitano. When the handsomely packaged Netflix movie injects the verve and invention Kitano is celebrated for, it shines much more brightly. Though it doesn’t offer the penetrating insight into Kitano that many viewers would be hoping for, this adaptation of his memoir by writer-director Gekidan Hitori (“A Bolt From the Blue”) does provide a respectful and touching portrait of Kitano’s mentor Senzaburo Fukami, the master entertainer whose fame and fortune declined sharply as Kitano’s career started to soar.
Published in 1988 and previously filmed in 2002 by Makoto Shinozaki (also director of the 1999 Kitano documentary “Jam Session”), “Asakusa Kid” charts the early life adventures and showbiz education of university dropout Kitano in the early 1970s. Opening in familiar biography style with...
Published in 1988 and previously filmed in 2002 by Makoto Shinozaki (also director of the 1999 Kitano documentary “Jam Session”), “Asakusa Kid” charts the early life adventures and showbiz education of university dropout Kitano in the early 1970s. Opening in familiar biography style with...
- 12/10/2021
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
No stranger to rock and roll herself, Carrie Brownstein will be helming a biopic of the band Heart for Amazon Studios. In a SiriusXM interview, Heart frontwoman Ann Wilson revealed that Brownstein will be directing and writing the film, but did not hint at any potential casting news for who will play her or her sister Nancy Wilson. Brownstein, who is a member of the rock band Sleater Kinney, has recently begun making her foray into directing. Her film The Nowhere Inn (co-written with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark) played the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She has also directed episodes of the television shows Mrs. Fletcher and Shrill, in addition to her co-writing credits for seven years on Portlandia.
Next up, Justin Kurzel is set to direct the new film Nitram, centering on the tragic 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, Deadline reports. An impressive roster of talent will star in the...
Next up, Justin Kurzel is set to direct the new film Nitram, centering on the tragic 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, Deadline reports. An impressive roster of talent will star in the...
- 12/2/2020
- by Stephen Hladik
- The Film Stage
The early life of Japanese cultural icon Takeshi “Beat” Kitano is set to have a the biopic treatment in a film, it has been announced today. The film, titled “Asakusa Kid”, will be based on the memoir written by Kitano himself and will focus on the early career of the comedian and legendary director.
The focus of the story will be on the relationship between the young Kitano, starting when he was working at a strip club in the Tokyo entertainment district of Asakusa, and Fukami, who was the club’s reigning comic.
The project will be directed and written for screen by comic Gekidan Hitori, who also directed the 2014 drama “Bolt from the Blue”. Yuya Yagira, best known for Koreeda’s “Nobody Knows” and for playing Toshiro Hijitaka in the live-action adaptation of the “Gintama” series, will play Kitano while Yo Oizumi (“I am a Hero“) will play Fukami Senzaburo,...
The focus of the story will be on the relationship between the young Kitano, starting when he was working at a strip club in the Tokyo entertainment district of Asakusa, and Fukami, who was the club’s reigning comic.
The project will be directed and written for screen by comic Gekidan Hitori, who also directed the 2014 drama “Bolt from the Blue”. Yuya Yagira, best known for Koreeda’s “Nobody Knows” and for playing Toshiro Hijitaka in the live-action adaptation of the “Gintama” series, will play Kitano while Yo Oizumi (“I am a Hero“) will play Fukami Senzaburo,...
- 11/25/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
A new Netflix movie has been announced based on the early career of comedian and film director Kitano Takeshi.
Titled “Asakusa Kid,” the film is based on a memoir of the same title written by Kitano. The director and scriptwriter is comic Gekidan Hitori, who also directed the 2014 drama “Bolt from the Blue.” Yagira Yuya (“Nobody Knows”) stars as Kitano and Oizumi Yo (“I Am a Hero”) plays Fukami Senzaburo, a comedian who was Kitano’s mentor. Sakamoto Kazutaka of Netflix is serving as executive producer and Oyamada Yoichi of Nikkatsu as producer.
The focus of the story will be on the relationship between the young Kitano, starting when he was working at a strip club in the Tokyo entertainment district of Asakusa, and Fukami, who was the club’s reigning comic.
In a statement, Gekidan Hitori said that he has been developing the script for six years and that...
Titled “Asakusa Kid,” the film is based on a memoir of the same title written by Kitano. The director and scriptwriter is comic Gekidan Hitori, who also directed the 2014 drama “Bolt from the Blue.” Yagira Yuya (“Nobody Knows”) stars as Kitano and Oizumi Yo (“I Am a Hero”) plays Fukami Senzaburo, a comedian who was Kitano’s mentor. Sakamoto Kazutaka of Netflix is serving as executive producer and Oyamada Yoichi of Nikkatsu as producer.
The focus of the story will be on the relationship between the young Kitano, starting when he was working at a strip club in the Tokyo entertainment district of Asakusa, and Fukami, who was the club’s reigning comic.
In a statement, Gekidan Hitori said that he has been developing the script for six years and that...
- 11/24/2020
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
A thriller based on a Beatles song, Golden Slumber (Gôruden suranbâ) is one of the most absurdly satisfying odes to friendship captured on film. Yoshihiro Nakamura's latest adaptation of a Kotaro Isaka novel pits the laid-back Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) against an assassination conspiracy wrapped up in revelations about trust.
Aoyagi's plans to catch up with a college buddy (Hidetaka Yoshioka) for a fishing trip are thwarted when the Prime Minister is assassinated. Suddenly the school day reminiscences are over as Aoyagi has been targeted as the prime suspect and it seems impossible he'll survive the day. Help comes from the most surprising of places as friends old and new make it their business to help the fugitive Aoyagi stay half a step ahead of corrupt police and the media. Just who his true friends are, and how they help or hurt him, make Golden Slumber seem like a movie half its 239-minute run time.
Aoyagi's plans to catch up with a college buddy (Hidetaka Yoshioka) for a fishing trip are thwarted when the Prime Minister is assassinated. Suddenly the school day reminiscences are over as Aoyagi has been targeted as the prime suspect and it seems impossible he'll survive the day. Help comes from the most surprising of places as friends old and new make it their business to help the fugitive Aoyagi stay half a step ahead of corrupt police and the media. Just who his true friends are, and how they help or hurt him, make Golden Slumber seem like a movie half its 239-minute run time.
- 10/4/2010
- by Jenn Brown
- Slackerwood
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