Is Takeshi Kitano making his last movie?

The most recent time Takeshi Kitano was present at a film festival, it was in 2017 with his movie Outrage Coda. This movie it is said to be a yakuza drama, the third in a trilogy, and that it had to be his final one. The Japanese entertainment icon, however, wasn’t going to make that happen. He said that he has plenty of ideas. He has the will to keep making movies. If he makes a violent movie once again, then everyone can assume that he will have trouble with money.

Those rumors about Kitano’s retirement have been highly exaggerated, it seems. Recently, in February, it was broadly reported in Japan that the filmmaker is going under production in May with Kubi. Titled Neck in English, it’s an action movie based on Takeshi’s own 2019 novel that has the same name. The subject centres on real-life Honno-Ji incident, in which famed warlord Oda Nobunaga was murdered at a temple in Kyoto back in 1582.

Once again, it has been highly suggested that this movie will be the final one for Kitano. In 2018 he quit from Office Kitano, which is the talent agency and also production company that he co-founded in 1992 with Masayuki Mori, a producer. Mori stated, back then, that Kitano wanted to lay down his burdens that he has been carrying plus increase his personal time. Kitano was always a workaholic and for years he was fronted nightly shows on Japanese television. He recorded many times two weeks’ worth of episodes only in one day. And There are a lot of ways regarding of having fun in Japan and, one of them, is to play at an online casino, which is an excellent idea. Besides, there’s always the opportunity to win some money by doing that. You have the chance to check the best casino at casinotop5.jp. You will be able to find an appropriate site for yourself where it’s possible for you to have plenty of fun and also receive the best bonuses, advantages and many more.

A previous stand-up comic who came to people’s attention in a double act named “The Two Beats” (therefore his stage name is Beat Takeshi) Kitano made a fortunate move to directing in 1989, when he finished the work of the director Kinji Fukasaku on Violent Cop, a brutal police procedural that he took the lead in. However, it was definitely his partnership with Mori that established him internationally, writing, directing and starring in a remarkable string of movies.

He is famous for his laconic, poetic style, punctuated by occasional bouts of violence, Kitano did deliver a high point with the great 1997 movie Hana-bi, which was awarded the Venice Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion. Then, six years after, he was awarded best director in Venice for Zatoichi, which is his own take on the mythical blind swordsman regarding Japanese popular culture. This movie is the most successful one of Kitano’s career and earned US$27 million and a huge critical acclaim, which was well deserved.

Yet Kitano was disappointed. In japan, we was known for his television work – satirical shows that Japanese society loved.

He said that his movies are acclaimed, thankfully, but commercially, it doesn’t really catch up with the acclaim that he got. And that was coming as some sort of standard perception of his filmmaking activity.

This might explain why, in 2010, he produced Outrage, which made him return to the yakuza topic that he exploited in movies such as Sonatine in the mid-‘90s. He stated that he thought to himself that the first Outrage quickly became a hit in the country, which was definitely rare for him. So, he could surely make more money if there was a sequel. And that’s what he did with in 2012 by producing Outrage Beyond and then Outrage Coda, two movies that fared poorly against the original with very generic, unimaginative stories of gangland double crossings.

Coda did make US$15 million in the country. That must have pleased Kitano, especially when it comes to his craving for commercial success. But hardcore fans were left with the feeling that he had reached an impasse regarding his artistic skills.

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