Takeshi Kitano

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Crocky
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:59 am

#26 Post by Crocky » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:17 am

Sanjuro wrote:The Bandai Visual DVD (like all Japanese DVDs) is Region 2 NTSC, not PAL.
Thank you for the information. So the details for the Bendai Visual (being Region 2 PAL) on the DVDBeaver Kikujiro comparison's page is a mistake ?

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Sanjuro
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:37 am
Location: Yokohama, Japan

#27 Post by Sanjuro » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:46 am

Yes. I have my Bandai Visual Kikujiro DVD (5000 yen...) in my hand right now, same cover, menus etc. as shown on DVDbeaver but clearly says NTSC on the back.

Japanese TVs use NTSC not PAL so it wouldn't make much sense for it to be a PAL DVD. I guess they got mixed up with Region 2 UK which is usually always PAL.

Looks like it has a retail price of 3999 yen which is expensive for people not used to Japanese prices I guess, but a damn sight better than the 5000-6000 yen we've been having to pay for pre-Zatoichi Takeshi films. Pre-order at Amazon is 2993 yen, same price as Kantoku Banzai. Or get the lot (up to Takeshis') for 35,910 yen! For a grand saving of nothing at all (but you do get a nice box...) Not that they've added subs to any of the pre-Hana-bi titles, which is shame.

The Bandai Visual DVD (like all Japanese DVDs) is Region 2 NTSC, not PAL.

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Awesome Welles
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
Location: London

Kantoku Banzai (Kitano, 2007)

#28 Post by Awesome Welles » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:40 am

Kitano's new film Kantoku Banzai played at Venice and Toronto. I don't know who has picked the film up for distribution. Did anyone catch this at any of the festivals?

Trailer, Reuters & Time Out.

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#29 Post by Barmy » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:02 pm

Looks a little Miike-y.

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franco
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:32 pm
Location: Vancouver

#30 Post by franco » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:09 am

David Bordwell wrote:[...] my admiration for Kitano Takeshi has been so great since I saw Sonatine back in the 1990s that I can't let Glory to the Filmmaker! pass without a little comment. His previous foray into fake autobiography, Takeshis', seemed to me pleasant enough in a casual way. Unless I'm missing something, however, Glory to the Filmmaker! is an unmitigated embarrassment. Gone are the surprising compositions and subtly daring cuts; gone too the elliptical narrative that has time for adolescent digressons. Glory! is nothing but adolescent digressions, sketches and skits that either cling to an unfunny premise, like the dummy Kitano that pops up now and then, or abandon their premises halfway through. The pastiches of Ozu and Kurosawa are slapdash and inexact, while the more purely Kitanoesque stretches work at very low wattage.
I seriously think that this is Kitano's worst film. When Tony Rayns prizes the ninja episode as his favorite, we know that he is running out of good things to say just as Kitano is running out of ideas. I really want to know what dvdane thinks.

ben d banana, on the other hand, enjoyed the movie :wink:

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

#31 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Oct 02, 2007 5:12 am

franco wrote:I really want to know what dvdane thinks.
I don't want to speak for Henrik, but from what I remember the times I talked to him in chat on the previous forum he really didn't like Getting Any?, which sounds like the nearest point of comparison to these latest films.

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franco
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 7:32 pm
Location: Vancouver

#32 Post by franco » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:10 am

Thanks for reminding me of Henrik's dislike of Getting Any. Most of what he says about the movie could definitely be applied to Kantoku Banzai:
Henrik wrote:So [Getting Any] is really more a film by "Beat" Takeshi than Kitano Takeshi, in the sense, that it is incoherent, crude, immature and authority defiant to the point of defying even his own persona.
It seems that the DVD is coming out next month

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Andre Jurieu
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:38 pm
Location: Back in Milan (Ind.)

#33 Post by Andre Jurieu » Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:01 pm

I caught Kantoku Banzai at TIFF and though it started off really strong, it soon descended into one of the most frustrating movies I've ever watched. I agree with Bordwell's description that the "pastiches of Ozu and Kurosawa are slapdash and inexact," but this appears to an intentional choice by Kitano and actually results in some of the more successful portions of the film. Meanwhile, Kitano's intensions for the rest of the film are utterly baffling. I don't think I've ever watched a film that was so content to disappoint the audience, while being completely aware that it is failing. It seriously takes guts to sustain that level of awful comedy for so long. Somehow, I'm confident Kitano has ulterior motives with this film, possibly as some sort of exercise in meta-filmmaking regarding audience expectations and filmmakers learning humility, but this project is exasperating or torturous... so it makes perfect sense that ben would like it.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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#34 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:57 am

Japan Times review of Kantoku Banzai by Mark Schilling and DVD Times review.

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Alain3000
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:21 pm
Location: MA

Achilles to Kame/Achilles And The Tortoise (Kitano, 2008)

#35 Post by Alain3000 » Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:25 am

New film project from Takeshi Kitano. Sounds interesting: Achilles to Kame

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Sanjuro
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:37 am
Location: Yokohama, Japan

#36 Post by Sanjuro » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:35 pm

Picture here.

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Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
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#37 Post by Cold Bishop » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:25 pm

Sanjuro wrote:Picture here.
Wow, Kitano is really looking old.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

#38 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:14 pm

Review of Achilles and the Tortoise by Geoffrey Macnab at the Guardian blogs.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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#39 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:07 pm

Kitano going back to jidai-geki?

Kitano says it wouldn't be another Zatoichi but rather a "Kitano-style period film," whatever "Kitano-style" means at this point. ("Aggressively audience-baiting," maybe?)

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perkizitore
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:29 pm
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Re: Takeshi Kitano

#40 Post by perkizitore » Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:06 pm

Has anyone taken a look at the Zatoichi Blu-Ray?

Anthony Thorne
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:45 am

Re: Takeshi Kitano

#41 Post by Anthony Thorne » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:29 am

A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Along with the DOA 2-DVD S.E of Kim Je-Woon's A BITTERSWEET LIFE, lost the very week of its release when Tartan UK went down the plughole, this is the most distressing almost-there DVD news I've recently encountered. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?

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JHunter
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:47 pm
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Re: Takeshi Kitano

#42 Post by JHunter » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:02 pm

Anthony Thorne wrote:A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Along with the DOA 2-DVD S.E of Kim Je-Woon's A BITTERSWEET LIFE, lost the very week of its release when Tartan UK went down the plughole, this is the most distressing almost-there DVD news I've recently encountered. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?
All of the special features for the Kitano DVDs were created by Outcast Cinema. When BCI Eclipse announced that it was being dissolved and all of its assets brought back into the parent company, Outcast Cinema's website indicated that everything was in limbo. However, they posted this on Sunday (Jan. 25th):
BCI / Eclipse DVDs - sadly, as mentioned in a recent post, BCI was shuttered by parent company Navarre because of poor sales and overspending. The good news is that we've recently made contact with someone at Navarre handling the transition, and he told us that they're currently considering what to do with all the unreleased titles in the BCI vaults; Navarre has several other sub-labels that could wind up releasing them. One thing in our favor is that all the supplemental work for these titles has been completed, and they'd be very easy to finish up for release. They said they'll stay in contact with us about the future of these titles - which include Go for Broke, Karate Wars, Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Rikyu and more - and we'll bring you the news here as soon as we hear it.
As for Tartan, all of its assets in the UK and US were purchased by Palisades back in July. They have been working on increasing the library and venturing into theatrical distribution (picking up Park Chan-Wook's THIRST for UK release and Carlos Reygadas' SILENT LIGHT in the US).

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Takeshi Kitano

#43 Post by swo17 » Fri May 29, 2009 11:59 am

Anthony Thorne wrote:A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?
Does anyone know of any updates to this?

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kaujot
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 6:28 pm
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Re: Takeshi Kitano

#44 Post by kaujot » Fri May 29, 2009 12:32 pm

All I know is that Hana-Bi was a New Yorker property, so that's probably off. I don't know about the others.

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thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: Takeshi Kitano

#45 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Fri May 29, 2009 2:29 pm

Second Sight, a UK company, have released a series of early Kitano films on R2 DVD. Pretty much all those asked about.

telamonides
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:03 am

Re: Takeshi Kitano

#46 Post by telamonides » Fri May 29, 2009 3:55 pm

kaujot wrote:All I know is that Hana-Bi was a New Yorker property, so that's probably off. I don't know about the others.
I believe that Hanabi is a Milestone property so there is still chance that an SE edition is in the works, especially considering that they have been reworking some of their other properties lately, e.g. I am Cuba, Why has Bodhi-dharma Left for the East, etc.

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MoonlitKnight
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:44 pm

Re: Takeshi Kitano

#48 Post by MoonlitKnight » Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:58 am

He'll always be "MXC" co-host Vic Romano to me. :lol:

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
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Re: Takeshi Kitano

#49 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:46 pm

First still from Kitano's new film, Outrage. It's his first yakuza film in over a decade.

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whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Takeshi Kitano

#50 Post by whaleallright » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:04 am

Hi folks. I'd like to show either BOILING POINT or A SCENE AT THE SEA to an Intro to Film class. Despairing of ever finding these films to rent on 35mm (neither were commercially distributed in the USA, to my knowledge), I'm curious what the optimal home-video versions are. Would the UK Second Sight DVD of A SCENE AT THE SEA be the best option (that includes English subtitles)? As for BOILING POINT, I get the impression that all of the English-subbed discs have compromised image quality. But if there's any news to the contrary, I'd welcome it. Thanks in advance!

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