
Takeshi Kitano
Director · b. 1947 · Tokyo, Japan
Takeshi Kitano (北野 武, Kitano Takeshi, born January 18, 1947), also known in Japan as Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし, Bīto Takeshi), is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. 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. Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country. After several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989's Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine (1993). He was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. He is also known internationally for hosting the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1990) and starring in the film Battle Royale (2000).
Movies24
Movie6.1Science FictionDramaIn the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Ghost in the Shell
2017 · 8.7K votes
Movie7.3DramaThrillerIn the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Movie5.8Science FictionActionIn a dystopian 2021, Johnny is a data trafficker who has an implant that allows him to securely store data too sensitive for regular computer networks. On one delivery run, he accepts a package that not only exceeds the implant's safety limits—and will kill him if the data is not removed in time—but also contains information far more important and valuable than he had ever imagined. On a race against time, he must avoid the assassins sent to kill him and remove the data before it, too, ends his life.
Johnny Mnemonic
1995 · 1.6K votes
Movie7.2AdventureDramaBlind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
Movie7.1CrimeDramaA Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Brother
2000 · 544 votes
Movie7.7CrimeDramaBeleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With his wife suffering from leukemia and his business partner paralyzed from a brutal gangster attack, Nishi borrows from a yakuza loan shark and then robs a bank to clear his debt.
Movie7.5ComedyDramaBrash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.
Movie7.3DramaHistoryIsland of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound knowledge of Japanese culture, and Sergeant Hara, brutal and simpleton, will witness the struggle of wills between two men from very different backgrounds who are tragically destined to clash.
Movie6.3DramaCrimeThe widow of a murdered yakuza boss serves jail time for attacking the man she believes killed her husband. After her release, as she is shadowed by a hitman, she returns to thoughts of revenge.
Movie7.5ActionCrimeMurakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, his group is attacked in an ambush. The survivors flee and make a decision to lay low at the beach while they await further instructions.
Sonatine
1993 · 706 votes
Movie6.6DramaHistorySet during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Movie5.0ActionThrillerIt's three years after the events of the original Battle Royale, and Shuya Nanahara is now an internationally-known terrorist determined to bring down the government. His terrorist group, Wild Seven, stages an attack that levels several buildings in Tokyo on Christmas Day, killing 8000 people. In order for the government to study the benefits of "teamwork", the new students work in pairs, with their collars electronically linked so that if one of them is killed, the other dies as well. They must kill Nanahara in three days - or die.
Movie6.4ComedyDramaCommissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.
Chacun son cinema ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumiere s'eteint et que le film commence
To Each His Own Cinema
2007 · 160 votes
Movie6.9CrimeComedyMasaki, a baseball player and gas-station attendant, gets into trouble with the local Yakuza and goes to Okinawa to get a gun to defend himself. There he meets Uehara, a tough gangster, who is in serious debt to the yakuza and planning revenge.
Movie6.9ActionCrimeWhen a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
Movie6.6DramaIn 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.
Movie7.2CrimeThrillerA detective breaks all rules of ethical conduct while investigating a colleague’s involvement in drug pushing and yakuza activities.
Movie7.0ActionCrimeAs the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.
Movie7.3DocumentaryTakeshi Kitano is an international icon. We know the actor, the multi-award-winning filmmaker, but many ignore his double personality: the crazy TV star, the street kid from Tokyo close to the Yakuza, and the political satirist who blasted taboos! Can we dream of a better guide to introduce us to the cultural history of Japan?
Citizen Kitano
2020 · 15 votes
Movie6.6ActionCrimeFive men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
Gonin
1995 · 64 votes
Movie6.8ActionCrimeFive years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and Chang's life is endangered, Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.
Movie6.5DocumentaryA look at the life and work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and his impact on Japanese culture.
Arakimentari
2004 · 20 votes
Movie6.7RomanceCrimeThe police are tracking a man who shoots at people. But the young sister of a detective finds that he's not the mad vigilante portrayed in newspapers.
Tokyo Eyes
1998 · 27 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryA 30 years odyssey: the world's most intriguing artists and thinkers from the fields of visual art, music, filmmaking, acting, literature, philosophy, politics, business and science, are asked the same question: "Why are you creative?"
Why Are We Creative?
2018 · 20 votes
Series11
TV9.0Talk ShowThe Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times
TV7.0ComedyFamilyFootage from the popular game show, Takeshi's Castle has been re-edited, re-written and re-voiced into a hilarious, intentionally over-produced, modern "action/X-treme" sports show.
MXC
2003 · 33 votes
TV7.8DramaWar & PoliticsTraces Japan’s history with the Olympic games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for viewers before Tokyo hosts the event again in 2020. The first half tells the story of marathon runner Kanakuri Shiso, who became one of the first Japanese nationals to participate in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. The second half features Tabata Masaji, the coach who laid the foundations of Japanese swimming and helped bring the games to Tokyo for the first time in 1964.
TV8.5ComedyFamilyTakeshi's Castle is a Japanese game show that aired between 1986 and 1990, on the Tokyo Broadcasting System. It features the Japanese comedian Takeshi Kitano (also known as Beat Takeshi) as a count who owns a castle and sets up difficult challenges for players (or a volunteer army) to get to him.
TV7.8ComedyRealityTakeshi's Castle was a Japanese game show that aired between 1986 and 1990 on the Tokyo Broadcasting System. It featured the Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano as a count who owns a castle and sets up difficult challenges for players to get to him. Contestants throw themselves into daunting physical challenges as they attempt to storm Takeshi's Castle and win the grand prize of one million yen. The show has become a cult television hit around the world. A special live "revival" was broadcast on April 2, 2005, for TBS's 50th anniversary celebrations.
Takeshi's Castle
2002 · 47 votes
TV8.4DramaOrphaned when he was not yet ten, Musashi grows up skilled in the martial arts. During the Battle of Sekigahara, he fights on the side of the losing Toyotomi forces, but eludes the enemy as they hunt down the vanquished soldiers. He then spends years wandering the countryside mastering the sword. As his fame spreads throughout the nation, men seek him out to test their skills against him--most notably Sasaki Kojiro who faces Musashi in the ultimate duel at Ganryujima.
TVDocumentaryNewsA current affairs television programme produced by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK provides cutting-edge information and critical analysis on important issues confronting Japanese lives.
TV9.0DramaThe Story of One Century tells the stories of three women, living in three different Japanese eras: Taisho (1912-1926), Showa (1926-1989) and Heisei (1989-present). The first generation takes place in the 1920s at the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake. Togura Aya, coming from a wealthy and influential family, marries against her will to a wealthy man Yokoyama Heikichi, who can help her father tide over his financial difficulties. It seems to be a wrong move, and life goes on meaninglessly for her, until she makes up her mind to follow her heart (Kota Yashiro, a man with a humble background).
TV6.3RealityComedyWorldwide sensation Takeshi's Castle returns after 34 years! Popular games are revived on a larger scale and new, terrifying obstacles appear one after another. The lord of the castle, Beat Takeshi, entrusts BANANAMAN to protect it. Subaru Kimura is the attack force's new leader. The elite team gathers to bring down the revived Takeshi's Castle. The greatest battle in history begins!
TVCrimeDramaJutaro Torikai is a senior detective set to uncover the truth behind an apparent double suicide.
- TV
Takeshi Kitano Variety Show