Takeshi Kitano’s new movie, premiering on the Cannes Movie Competition subsequent month, is a samurai story with out heroes, mercilessly portraying human greed, betrayal and cruelty.
Kitano, awarded the Golden Lion on the Venice Movie Competition for his “Hana-Bi” in 1997, wished to make a special form of interval piece in “Kubi,” or “neck,” a reference to conventional Japanese beheadings.
“Most samurai movies painting well-known individuals and don’t deal with the soiled facet of human existence or present how evil individuals don’t care a hoot about slaughtering common individuals,” Kitano instructed reporters Saturday.
The story encompasses a Sixteenth-century feud centered round Oda Nobunaga, a robust warlord — well-known in Japan however not as acquainted for abroad audiences. However the Shakespearean intrigues are acquainted sufficient.
The spectacular battle scenes evoke Akira Kurosawa classics like “Seven Samurai” and “Kagemusha,” based on Takeshi Natsuno, president of Kadokawa, the manufacturing firm behind “Kubi.”
Kitano, 76, started in Japan’s equal of vaudeville as a stand-up comedian with the stage identify Beat Takeshi, earlier than turning into a famous person on TV exhibits and movies.
The most recent work juxtaposes the horror of killing with the absurd, stated Kitano, showing on stage together with his solid at a Tokyo lodge.
“Kubi” encompasses a star-studded solid, together with Hidetoshi Nishijima, marking his return to a Kitano movie for the reason that 2002 “Dolls,” which was impressed by conventional Bunraku puppet theater, in addition to Ryo Kase, who appeared in Kitano’s “Outrage” gangster sequence.
Kitano additionally acts within the new movie and wrote the screenplay, based mostly on his e book, printed in 2019.
Among the most dramatic scenes in “Kubi” contain fabulous units, however had been taken in a single lower or minimal cuts. Kitano stated that was intentional and recalled that director Nagisa Oshima taught him to keep away from closeups in main scenes.
Kitano’s first main movie function was in Oshima’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” a drama a few Japanese prisoner of struggle camp throughout World Battle II, starring David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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