Main Cast: Beat Takeshi Kitano, Toru Emori, Kayoko Kishimoto, Anne Suzuki, Keiko Matsuzaka, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Release Year: 2007
Country: JP
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
A self-referential comedy that serves as prolific Japanese filmmaker Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's latest attempt at "creative destruction" (that process was set into motion with the release of 2005's Takeshis), Kantoku Banzai! follows an ageing filmmaker (Kitano) who is eager to revive his failing career. Realizing that he has taken to falling back on familiar clichés, the weary director experiments with producing everything from an Ozu-inspired home drama to an ultra-commercial J-horror film - all with varying degrees of failure. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The comedy, presented as an "ultra variety movie"[1], crosses a broad range of genres common to Japanese film, in a similar fashion to Kitano's 1995 parody Getting Any?. Kitano described the film as "a cinematic extension of [his] manzai comedy routines that continues in much the same vein as [his] last feature." [2]
Plot
Kitano plays a hapless film director in search of a commercial hit, while suffering failure after failure as he tries out different genres.
In 2007, the Venice Film Festival introduced a new award named after the film, Kitano was also the first recipient of the Glory to the Filmmaker! award. [3]
