Kitano Takeshi

DeconstruactAilng Violence

Kitano Takeshi• Born on 17, January 1947• His father, Kikujiro, was a

house painter, a failed yakuza (?)

• Excelled in math and science, though he was a college drop-out.

• Found a job at France-za, a striptease club - being elevator operator and bringing in customers.

Kitano Takeshi

• France-za, striptease theatre, incl. magic, stand-up comedy, short comic play

Kitano Takeshi• Tutored by Fukami

Senzaburo to be a comedian.

• Kitano came at the end of the illustrious list of Asakusa entertainers since the pre-war period - Enomoto Ken’ichi, Furukawa Roppa, Atsumi Kiyoshi, Hagimoto Kin’ichi.

Asakusa Comedians

Kitano Takeshi • With Kaneko Kiyoshi, Kitano formed a duo standing comedian team, Two Beat.

• Anarchic stage performance - full of black homour, discriminatory jokes, obscene words and actions breaking broadcasting ethical codes, though popular.

• Two Beat

Kitano Takeshi as Actor• 1969 Yuke Yuke Nidome no Shojo (Go, Go,

Second Virgin) by Wakamatsu Koji (as extra)• http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=9cAH_J8JQw4• 1980 Makoto-chan as voice actor • 1981 Danpu Wataridori (Truck Driver Wanderers)

as a supporting actor • 1981 Manon by Maeda Yoichi• 1981 Sukkari Sono Ki de (Completely Serious) by

Kitani Tsugunobu: 　 Main character• 1981 Natsu no Himitsu (Secrets of Summer) by

Kawakami Hiromichi

Kitano Takeshi as Actor

• 1983 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence as Sgt. Hara

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Violent Cop (1989) • Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Nozawa Hisashi

(and Kitano Takeshi uncredited)

• Photographed by Sasakibara Yasushi

• Edited by Kamiya Nobutaka

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Boiling Point (1990)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi

and Toshio Taniguchi• Shochiku Fuji and Bandai

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• A Scene at the Sea (1991)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi • Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Office Kitano

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Sonatine (1993)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Shochiku Dai’ich Kogyo

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Getting Any (1995)• Directed by Kitano

Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Office Kitano

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Kids Return (1996)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Office Kitano, Bandai, Ota

Publishing

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Hana-bi (1997)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by Yamamoto

Hideo• Edited by Kitano Takeshi

and Ota Yoshinori• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV

Tokyo, Tokyo FM

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Kikujiro (1999) • Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi

and Ota Yoshinori• Office Kitano, Bandai,

Nippon Herald, FM Tokyo

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Brother (2000)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi

and Ota Yoshinori• Bandai, Office Kitano, FM

Tokyo, Little Brother Inc.

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Dolls (2002)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Designed by Isoda Norihiro• Costume by Yamamoto Yoji• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV

Tokyo, FM Tokyo

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Zatoichi (2003) • Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Office Kitano, TV, Asahi

Asahi Broadcasting Co. FM Tokyo, Dentsu

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Takeshi’s (2005)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Costume by Yamamoto Yoji• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV

Asahi, FM Tokyo, Dentsu

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Kantoku Banzai (2007)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by Yanagishima

Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Office Kitano, Bandai, Dentsu,

TV Asahi, FM Tokyo

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Achilles and the Tortoise

(2008)• Directed by Kitano

Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi• Design by Isoda Norihiro• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV

Asahi, FM Tokyo

Kitano Takeshi as Director• Outrage (2010)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by Yanagishima

Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi and

Ota Yoshinori• Costume by Kurosawa Kazuko• Office Kitano, Bandai, TV

Tokyo, FM Tokyo, Omnibus

Kitano Takeshi as Director

• Outrage beyond (2012)• Directed by Kitano Takeshi• Written by Kitano Takeshi• Photographed by

Yanagishima Katsumi• Edited by Kitano Takeshi,

Ota Yoshinori• Design by Kurosawa Kazuko• Office Kitano, Bandai Visual,

TV Tokyo, Warner Bros.

Subversion of Genres• Action Film (Cop and Yakuza) - Violent Cop

(1989), Boiling Point (1990), Sonatine (1993), Haba-bi (1997), Brother (2000), Zatoichi (2003), Outrage (2010), Outrage beyond (2012)

• Youth Film - A Scene at the Sea (1991), Kids Return (1996)

• Melodrama - (A Scene at the Sea ), (Hana-bi) (1997), Dolls (2002)

• Slap-stick Comedy - Getting Any? (1995) • Drama on himself - Kikujiro (1999), Takeshi’s

(2005)

Subversion of Genres• What makes Kitano auteur – making mainly

action films, his films deconstruct genre conventions.

• In his action films, purposes of violence disintegrate – meanings of violence obfuscated – no definite purpose and meanings of violence

• His melodrama – romances are not about love but about the loss of its meaning

• His (autobiographical) films are not about himself, but fictionalize, mystify, and obscure himself.

Subversion of Genres

• Conventional cinema concepts and traditional genre formulae are questioned, distorted and demolished.

Subversion of Genres: Violent Cop

• Violent Cop as an cop action thriller• A lone police officer attempts punish a criminal

organization and his own corrupt institution, taking justice into his own hands (in the tradition of Dirty Harry, French Connection)

Subversion of Genres: Sonatine

• Sonatine as a yakuza action thriller• A Tokyo yakuza was commissioned to take his

men to Okinawa to settle the local dispute between two clans only to find that this is a set up. While he is away, others can take over his territory. (The Yakuza Paper and other gangster films)

Subversion of Genres

Deviation from the rules of the genre featuring violence and violent actions

Movies with Violent Actions• Devoid of catharsis functioning of violence (Catharsis - Aristotelian concept of pleasure

obtained by releasing heightened tension)→ e.g. justice is done through fulfilling a violent revenge

Subversion of Genres

→ violence as a spectacle→ violence as a game→ violence as a means to satisfy sadistic / masochistic desire

Subversion of GenresViolent Cop• What is the purpose of

violence in this film?• Punishment - this purpose

is undermined by the excessive violence shown by the cop.

The cop and the gangster are equal in their obsession with violence.

Subversion of Genres

• Revenge - loses its meaning when it loses its sight of what to achieve.

The cop kills his own sister at the end of the film. • Good and evil interchangeable

Subversion of Genres

• Meanings of violence are further undermined by the frequent inclusion of jokes.

• Ambiguity of violenceIts functionIts morality

• Ambiguity in attitudes towards violence - criticizing or romanticizing? Demystifying or glorifying?

Subversion of Genres

Sonatine• Opaqueness in narrative, inner psyche of the

characters, and motivation for their actions• Obvious death wish of the protagonist - where

does it come from?

Subversion of Genres

• Absurd and irrational• No explanation of motives: no cause and effect → Make the meaning of violence unclear and

ambiguous.

Subversion of Genres

• Hana-bi • A retired cop robs a bank in order to give his

former colleague, who is now wheelchair bound after he received injury on duty, compensation. He also kills yakuza from whom he borrowed money.

Subversion of Genres• Why does Nishi have to

rob the bank? • For the needs of his wife

who is dying from leukemia?

• To pay back the money that Nishi and his colleague borrowed from the yakuza?

• What were the need for money?

Subversion of Genres

• Why does Nishi have to kill yakuza? • Is that because he owes them money and cannot

repay? Or because they have insulted him?• Why did he borrow money to start with?

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Mise-en-scene of Kitano’s films: creation of ascetic and clinically clean atmosphere

• Stillness, silence, emptiness, nothingness• Empty sea, empty land, empty school ground,

empty swimming pool

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty sea in Okinawa• Boiling Point

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty beach • A Scene at the Sea

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty road and beach• Sonatine

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty school ground and underpath• Kids Return

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty sea with Horibe and empty lake with Nishi and his wife

• HANA-BI

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty swimming pool and empty river bank

• Kikujiro

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Empty snow-capped mountain top and empty path in autumn colours

• Dolls

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Static composition - a shot in which nothing moves as if frozen.

• Small subject sizes and protracted shots• e.g. Murakawa’s men aftermath of the bombing

of the Anan’s office

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Mannerist distortions of the cinematic conventions

• Spatial treatment and screen composition• e.g. medium shot of three people with unusually

large head space in Boiling Point• e.g. medium shot of the killer whose face is cut

by the top edge of the screen

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Unconventional composition• Main figures and objects placed in the dead

centre of the frame• Textbook composition - main figures and objects

must be placed slightly off-centre, particularly in a widescreen format.

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Wim Wenders’ classic widescreen composition in Paris, Texas

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots - as if you were watching still photos.

• Long and medium shots are norm in Kitano’s early films. More close-ups in his later films, though they are not many.

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of Azuma• Violent Cop

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of Yakuza, and Uehara and Kazuo

• Boiling Point

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of surfers, and Takako and Shigeru’s surfing board

• A Scene at the Sea

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of two kids • Kids Return

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of Nishi, and Nishi and his wife • HANA-BI

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Frontal shots of Kikujiro after seeing his mother and after saying farewell

• Kikujiro

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Is there such a thing as ‘Kitano Blue’?• Conscious use of thick blue colour

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Conspicuous since Sonatine• Aesthetic and atmospheric rather than symbolic

meaning

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Blue first used unconsciously and unintentionally later became a benchmark of Kitano’s film.

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Kitano began to use colours more strategically after HANA-BI

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène

• Minimalist visual style: simple settings (empty space); simple compositions (frontal shots); simple camera movements (static shots); long take

• Minimalist visual style renders Kitano’s films pensive mood

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Montage

• Editor since his second film, Boiling Point

• Languid pace, relying on long takes→ 　 pensive mood

• Effective use of dissolves and overlaps

Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Montage

• Jagged editing ignoring continuity- A scene abruptly cut in the middle of an

action- A scene abruptly begin in the middle of an

action→ 　 Estrangement (endfremden) effects → 　 Preventing the audience from psychologically being involved in actions → Action ends abruptly, refusing to show the emotional reverberation caused by it. Emotional reticence

Reference to Other Films

• Kitano refers to and quotes from other films, works of Ozu, Coppola, Kubrick, Cimino, Fukasaku, etc.

• Static shots and frontal composition• Cross-cutting• Representation of violence• Stanley Kubrick’s An Clockwork Orange and

Kitano’s Violent Cop (openings)• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWLByMshYIU

Reference to Other Films

• Static shots and tranquility • Associated with Ozu’s films

Reference to Other Films

• Kitano’s violent cop is Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry (1971)

Reference to Other Films

• The Russian roulette scenes are taken from Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978)

Reference to Other Films

• Kitano owes a lot to Fukasaku’s Yakuza films – particularly Yakuza Paper

• Crooked camera angles and mannerist representation of violence