44 Facts About Kitano Takeshi

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author.

Kitano Takeshi rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country.

Kitano Takeshi was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997.

In October 2017, Kitano Takeshi completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda.

Kitano Takeshi is known internationally for hosting the game show Takeshi's Castle and starring in the film Battle Royale.

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Kitano Takeshi has received critical acclaim for his idiosyncratic cinematic work, winning numerous awards with Japanese film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa having once dubbed him "the true successor" to influential filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

Many of Kitano Takeshi's films are dramas about yakuza gangsters or the police.

Takeshi Kitano was born in Adachi, Tokyo, with two older brothers and an older sister.

Kitano Takeshi's father worked as a house painter, with Kitano revealing that he used to live like a yakuza, while his mother was a strict disciplinarian and educator who worked in a factory.

Kitano Takeshi entered Meiji University and studied engineering, before dropping out at age 19.

Kitano Takeshi went to the Asakusa district in 1972 to become a comedian.

Kitano Takeshi confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden.

Together with Sanma Akashiya and Tamori, Kitano Takeshi is said to be one of the "Big Three" television comedians of Japan.

Many of Kitano Takeshi's routines involved him portraying a gangster or other harsh characters.

Kitano Takeshi said that after playing comedy clubs he would be invited to drink with yakuza, who would tell him stories about the big crime bosses.

Kitano Takeshi said that he was happy with his performance and snuck into a showing of the film to see how the audience would accept him as a serious actor instead of a comedian.

Kitano Takeshi was devastated when the audience burst into laughter upon his appearing on screen, but vowed to stick to serious and dark characters in film.

In 1986, Kitano worked on the Family Computer video game Takeshi no Chosenjo, as a consultant and partial designer.

Kitano Takeshi was the first Japanese celebrity to actively contribute to the development of a video game and starred in several commercials promoting its release.

Kitano Takeshi has published a number of novels and other books which have been translated into French.

Kitano Takeshi rewrote the script heavily, and this marked the beginning of Kitano's career as a filmmaker.

Mark Schilling cited it as the film in which Kitano Takeshi defined his style with long takes, minimal camera movement, brief dialogue, sly humor, and sudden violence.

Kitano Takeshi plays a Tokyo yakuza who is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war there.

Kitano Takeshi is tired of gangster life, and when he finds out the whole mission is a ruse, he welcomes what comes with open arms.

That year Kitano appeared in the film adaptation of William Gibson's 1995 Johnny Mnemonic, credited by the mononym "Takeshi", although his on-screen time was greatly reduced for the American cut of the film.

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Kitano Takeshi's paintings have been published in books, featured in gallery exhibitions, and adorn the covers of many of the soundtrack albums for his films.

Kitano Takeshi's paintings were featured prominently in his most critically acclaimed film, 1997's Hana-bi.

Kitano Takeshi himself said it was not until he won this award that he was accepted as a serious director in Japan; prior his films were looked at as just the hobby of a famous comedian.

Kitano Takeshi hosted Koko ga Hen da yo Nihonjin which was a Japanese TV show that was broadcast weekly from 1998 to 2002, a talk show on which a large panel of Japanese-speaking foreigners from around the world debate current issues in Japanese society.

Kitano Takeshi played a similarly named character in the controversial 2000 Japanese blockbuster Battle Royale, which takes place in a future in which a group of teenagers are randomly selected each year to eliminate each other on a deserted island.

Dolls in 2002 had Kitano Takeshi directing but not starring in a romantic drama with three different stories about undying love, and was loosely based on a bunraku play.

Kitano Takeshi revealed that he was approached by others to create the film and therefore differed from his own techniques and followed the common filmmaking process in order to please them and make a pure-entertainment film.

From April 2005 to 2008, Kitano Takeshi was an instructor at the Graduate School of Visual Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.

In between these films, Kitano Takeshi appeared in a number of other television projects and smaller projects.

Also in 2007, Kitano appeared in To Each His Own Cinema as the projectionist as Beat Takeshi, and in the TV movie Wada Akiko Satsujin Jiken.

Kitano Takeshi admitted he tried something different for Outrage by adding a lot of dialogue, stepping back as the main character to make an ensemble piece, and having the feel of a nature documentary watching the characters kill each other.

In September 2012, Takeshi Kitano said that the producers wanted him to make a third Outrage film depending on the box office.

On 7 March 2013, Minkei News of Hong Kong reported that Kitano Takeshi won the Best Director award for Outrage Beyond at the 7th Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong.

On 10 August 2013, in an interview reported by John Bleasdale, Kitano Takeshi revealed his current plans for a sequel to Outrage Beyond and an untitled personal film project.

In September 2015, it was announced that Kitano Takeshi would be contributing his voice and likeness to the character Toru Hirose in the SEGA video game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

Kitano Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after Johnny Mnemonic in 1995.

In 2017, Kitano Takeshi released the third and final installment in the successful Outrage series titled Outrage Coda.

Kitano Takeshi won the Golden Lion award at the 54th Venice International Film Festival in 1997 for his film Hana-bi.

In March 2010 Kitano Takeshi was named a Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters of France.