Monday 16 November 2015

Spotlight on Takeshi Kitano this week!


I recently picked up the UK release Takeshi Kitano Collection featuring 6 of his classics on DVD. 
Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Getting Any?, Scene At The Sea, Kids Return and Sonatine.

Currently working my way through the boxset so over the next week I will have reviews uploaded for each film.

For those who don't know who Kitano is, or have never seen any of his films, you are in for a treat.

When I mention him to people who say they don't know who he is, I always inform them that he was the person who had the hit international show Takeshi's Castle. Which most people know about.


Or I tell them he was the teacher in Battle Royale. Which is how I discovered this wonderful actor and director. After Seeing his excellent performance in Battle Royale, I went around trying to track down any of his films I could. This eventually led me to a trilogy boxset by Tokyo Bullet featuring Violent Cop, Sonatine and Boiling Point. From then on, I was hooked!

I would now consider myself a big fan of Beat Takeshi, he is one of my all time favourite directors, and after seeing all his work I decided to revisit some of his classics with this 6 disc set.

So stay tuned and look out for the reviews which will be up every other day this week.

6 comments:

  1. I really need to sit down and work my way through Kitano's stuff again - long overdue (as well as me catching on to your blog!). A shame he's dropped of the UK cinema distribution of late - I had the luck of seeing all his early cop stuff in the cinema, though his films maybe did go a bit too personal post-Zatoichi (I haven't seen either of the 2 that followed 2005's Takeshis) before the standard "return to form" reviews that accompanied both Outrage and Outrage Beyond, which I thought were pretty good (once I'd finally hunted them down on affordable DVD). Think there's supposed to be a 3rd one bubbling under....

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    1. Thank you very much for the comment.
      Kitano is a master film-maker, I really enjoy all his work. Sonatine is my all time favourite.
      Have you seen Third Window Films has been releasing Kitano films on bluray? I currently have Hana Bi, Kikujiro and Dolls. And soon to be released is Kids Return and A Scene At The Sea.
      I loved both Outrage films, a third would be welcome :-)

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    2. Thank you very much for the comment.
      Kitano is a master film-maker, I really enjoy all his work. Sonatine is my all time favourite.
      Have you seen Third Window Films has been releasing Kitano films on bluray? I currently have Hana Bi, Kikujiro and Dolls. And soon to be released is Kids Return and A Scene At The Sea.
      I loved both Outrage films, a third would be welcome :-)

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    3. I'd have to agree with that - I found Hana Bi a wee bit of a letdown after Sonatine at the time (too much anticipation off the amazing reviews?, the same way In the Mood For Love was WKW's critical breakthrough/peak, but not his best IMO). Yet to upgrade to Bluray, but the way the prices are falling of late I ought to. Just means starting the collection from scratch yet again. By the time I get round to it they'll probably have jammed Kitano's entire filmography into a single hefty box (and it'll be slipping out of print and going for a fortune....) Bonus points for Beyond Outrage having Piggsy in it!

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    4. I know exactly what you mean.
      In The Mood For Love is a masterpiece. But I still prefer Chungking Express. That's one of my all time favourite films.
      I have been upgrading most of my collection to Bluray over the years. Some haven't made it to Bluray yet and some have but aren't even true HD which is a shame. I then save up all the dvds I have upgrades and trade them in to CEX and get myself some more goodies haha.

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    5. Yeah, CE was what kicked the whole thing off for me back in the day and is one of my absolute favourites too. I often get lost when folk talk about "transfers" and "ghosting" on DVDs on Amazon - I actually had the old Lighthouse(?) DVDs of Violent Cop etc. and spent a bit of time comparing the pictures with the above box set to see if I could determine what was superior. Gave them to a pal and called it quits. Got a stack of DVDs for trading in too - good way to keep the collection manageable (and turning over.)

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