is a 2007 Japanese film written, directed, edited by the film's lead star

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

. It is the second film in Kitano's

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

trilogy, following ''

Takeshis' ''Takeshis'' is a 2005 Japanese film directed, written, edited by, and starring Takeshi Kitano. It is the first film in Kitano's surrealist autobiographical trilogy, being followed by ''Glory to the Filmmaker!'', and '' Achilles and the Tortoise'' ...

'', and concluding with ''

Achilles and the Tortoise Zeno's paradoxes are a set of philosophical problems generally thought to have been devised by Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (c. 490–430 BC) to support Parmenides' doctrine that contrary to the evidence of one's senses, the belief in pluralit ...

''.

Style

The

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

crosses a broad range of genres common to

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

in a fashion similar to ''

Getting Any? is a 1995 Japanese film, written, directed, edited, and starring Takeshi Kitano. ''Yatteru'' (やってる) is the colloquial form for ''yatteiru'' (やっている), ''yatteru'' coming from the Japanese verb ''yaru'', which is an informal word m ...

'', Kitano's 1995 parody. Kitano described the film as "a cinematic extension of his

manzai is a traditional style of comedy in Japanese culture comparable to double act comedy or stand-up comedy. usually involves two performers ()—a straight man () and a double act, funny man ()—trading jokes at great speed. Most of the jokes ...

comedy routines that continues in much the same vein as his last feature, the similarly eclectic ''Takeshis."

Plot

Kitano plays a hapless

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

in search of a commercial hit, while suffering failure after failure as he tries out different genres.

Cast

Tōru Emori is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and theater director. He has appeared in more than sixty films since 1965. Career Emori entered the acting school at the Bungakuza theater troupe in 1962 and came to fame with the play ''Ōmugiiri no chikin s ...

Kayoko Kishimoto is an actress. She appeared in several of Takeshi Kitano's films, such as '' Hana-bi'', ''Kikujiro'' and '' Dolls''. She won the award for best supporting actress at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Kikujiro''. Biography In 1976 at a Hideki ...

Anne Suzuki is a Japanese actress. Career Suzuki co-starred in Shunji Iwai's ''Hana and Alice'' with Yū Aoi. She voiced the title character Ray Steam in Katsuhiro Otomo's animated film ''Steamboy''. Suzuki played a supporting role in Andrew Lau and Alan ...

Keiko Matsuzaka (born July 20, 1952) is a Japanese actress. Early life Born in Ōta, Tokyo, her father was a naturalized South Korean while her mother was Japanese. Career In the 1960s, Matsuzaka became a child actress. Matsuzaka grew into adulthood in film ...

Yoshino Kimura is a British-born Japanese actress, voice actress and singer. She appeared on an episode of the Showtime series ''Masters of Horror''. Kimura won the "Rookie of the Year" prize at the 21st Japan Academy Film Prize, Japan Academy Awards for her ...

Kazuko Yoshiyuki (born 9 August 1935) is a Japanese film actress and voice actress essayist. Biography Early life Kazuko was born in Tokyo as a first daughter of Eisuke Yoshiyuki, a writer, and Aguri. She has an older brother, Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, a novelist, ...

Yuki Uchida (born November 16, 1975) is a Japanese actress, and a popular 1990s idol, model and singer. Biography Uchida was born in Tokyo. She practiced fencing in high school, and ranked 3rd in a tournament in Tokyo in 1991. She began her career as a mod ...

Akira Takarada was a Japanese film actor best known for his roles in the ''Godzilla'' film series. Life and career Akira Takarada was born in Korea under Japanese rule, and lived for a time in Manchuria, China. His father worked as an engineer on the Sou ...

Yumiko Fujita Yumiko Fujita (藤田弓子; born 12 September 1945 in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese actress. Selected filmography Film * '' If You Were Young: Rage'' (1970) * '' Under the Flag of the Rising Sun'' (1972) * ''Karafuto 1945 Summer Hyosetsu ...

Ren Osugi , born was a Japanese actor. For his work in ''Cure'', ''Hana-bi'' and other films, Osugi was given the Best Supporting Actor award at the 1999 Yokohama Film Festival. He often worked alongside Takeshi Kitano and Susumu Terajima. In the DVD comme ...

Susumu Terajima is a Japanese actor. Though he has played a wide range of characters, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of ''yakuza'' figures, most notably in the films of Takeshi Kitano. Terajima made his acting debut in 1986's ''A Homansu''. He ...

*Naomasa Musaka

Reception

In 2007, the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

introduced a new award named after the film; Kitano was the first recipient of this ''Glory to the Filmmaker!'' award.Venice to hand out Kitano prize
'' Variety Asia Online''.

References

External links

* *
Movie trailer at Official siteKantoku Banzai reviewed at Twitch
{{Takeshi Kitano 2007 films 2007 comedy-drama films Films directed by Takeshi Kitano Japanese comedy-drama films 2000s Japanese-language films