<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I met Richie on the way to Yamagata, and we both agreed the best book on Japanese film in recent memory is Aaron Gerow's <I>Kitano Takeshi</I> (catchy title, Aaron!). </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The bulk of the book consists of close textual analyses of films up to, but not including the recent disaster. I'd like to know Aaron's take on that one; he hinted that he has a recuperative one. The analyses are all really great. But the best part of the book is the first one, the frame on framing. I learned a lot about Kitano and about recent Japanese film criticism. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If I have one criticism, it is that Aaron hides behind all the other critics. This is the "evenhandedness" that Richie writes about. The sentences where he edges toward taking some kind of position are tempered by the plural form ("Our interpretation..."; "Our question...."). This is hardly a big deal, but "one does" wish he were a little more direct when writing about Kitano's slippery politics. I'm left as confused as before on that count. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">In any case, this is certainly one of the best issues is the BFI series, an impressive and fun read to be sure. Anyone else read it out there?</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Markus</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb-dr-all.html"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="6"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px;">THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF</SPAN></FONT></A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">TAKESHI KITANO</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="7"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 25px;"><B>Sophistication from improvisation</B></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 11.6px/normal Geneva; min-height: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><BR></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">By </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/JTsearch5.cgi?term1=DONALD%20RICHIE"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#10178C" face="Arial"><B>DONALD RICHIE</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1844571661/ref=nosim/?tag=thejaptimonl-22"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><B><I>Kitano Takeshi</I></B></SPAN></FONT></A><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><IMG src="cid:14A4E525-B838-4DBF-8085-BB95EB05A88D@local"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="5"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;"><B><I>. London: British Film Institute, 2007, 272 pp., with photos. £16.99 (paper)</I></B></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Geneva; min-height: 21px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><BR></SPAN></DIV><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">This is a brilliant book on a mercurial subject. Takeshi Kitano is an actor and film director, ubiquitous on television as well, who has become a media event. His persona has splintered and he stands Janus-faced over Japanese entertainment. He has two names (Beat Takeshi and Takeshi Kitano), is both a clown and a sage, a radical renegade and a conservative artist, a raggle-taggle TV comic and a maker of admired art-films. Protean, shape-shifting, he seems to defy description.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Accomplishing this, finding the pattern in the welter, is the task that Aaron Gerow, film critic for The Daily Yomiuri and assistant professor of Japanese cinema at Yale University, has taken upon himself, and most elegantly accomplished.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Geneva; min-height: 21px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><BR></SPAN></P><TABLE width="254.0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width: 254.0px; padding: 1.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px"><TBODY><TR><TD valign="middle" style="width: 250.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.5px 0.0px 0.5px; padding: 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px 1.0px"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://click.advantage20.mootermedia.com/clicktracker?tguwguJfC2=663B235-kgA7A64B==69.qA75336-vC2=42A69.pA30tBA2.sA39-qC3.iAjwur.4C.3H.3Hvfcudj2kcsbpwjoht1fp1mq-5Gejj0ejp.3Hic43193=53et2ivpm.wtB=5.ufflsgfuwumBkuvs&5D&4I&4Izrq.3511rwguuwuf1fpo.3Hg&4Itt.3H.4H%25btjt-6EpvdQD=7EqRL%25YEu2J6wZcbz=p&1XMM5=dQBs0Z1gHcnrjVSObGBI&Wo8wRNzKa.FwgFl2EpkQ=DZvwzGYVmvux_09.dI68MuUbOkr9=4ufYjVy=Zgy&ZqrcKExUSoCSMEV4K%25nFQl_kfrMaSyXgjWIGgMt&Q5Etnp7ubPI_oMr1s4rQS9My4QWzrrjunvpV4NgtrwO9tKDnscT=alUUTHTM=8FEckdu1MxOYx8m0kdDn_0mY7TK3D_K%25VXUzV_2TrOK7Woua6zR_HKDkaqpZ0g_R=Dl4=MhiasWATUVSpnxikniPOMQdil&gK%25KxXP_JzZhHi5o5_66"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="6"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px;"><B>100% Online Phd Degrees</B></SPAN></FONT></A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Your destination 100% online Phd degree.</FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#A22825" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">www.degrees-online.us</SPAN></FONT></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Geneva; min-height: 21px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><BR></SPAN></DIV><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Gerow hypothesizes a necessary duality. There are not only two names for the same person, there are also two Takeshis. "One is the auteur in the traditional sense who produces a recognizable, possibly evolving text over his career; the other is a trickster who repeatedly undermines expectations and defines himself by changing style and thematics from film to film."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">Gerow sources this in Kitano's earliest manifestation, the stupid (boke) half of a popular </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>manzai</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"> (stand-up comedy) team "The Two Beats." This vaudeville act (a Western equivalent might be the Three Stooges) poses the straight-man (tsukkomi) against his idiot but crafty partner. In the case of "The Two Beats," however, the boke is also radical, subversive, even offensive, all out to break social taboos with his "poisonous tongue" (dokuzetsu). This early duality has proved a profitable vehicle for the rest of Kitano's career. Gerow gives a full, careful listing of all its manifestations, particularly in the film work.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Of this Kitano has said: "I shoot films for my own use because I'm my own best audience." He is also a cinematic autodidact. He now teaches film at a respected academy, but he himself has had no formal film education at all. Thus, though critics of his work sometimes evoke big names (Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson), in fact Kitano has not seen much. Rather than copy, he invented his own style. And it is one very different from (and not necessarily worse than) the academic norm.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">There is, for example, not much in the way of a script. "I've never written a word myself," Kitano has said. His work is almost entirely oral, transcribed remarks that are worked into novels, stories, scripts. If most films are really the result of community effort, this would certainly be true of all Kitano films.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">At the same time, the nature of their creation does nothing to lessen the auteur-impact allowed this body of work. The reason, to quote one critic, is that "Kitano as media figure is not just an auteur writ large . . . but a cultural production, a little industry in his own right."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">During shooting of his dictated script, Kitano will often change his mind, drop scenes that turn out not to play well, enlarge those that do. "Sonatine" originally called for a character in just one scene, but Kitano so liked the performance that he kept the actor on and the character became integral to the finished film itself.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">This method of filming is similar to that of a jazz jam session, each member contributing, Kitano orchestrating, as seen in "Jam Session," a documentary by Makoto Shinozaki about Kitano's working methods. Improvisation is everything, the lines change every day, sets are lit from all sides to accommodate sudden camera changes, and the director rarely gives specific instruction to his actors.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">This attitude toward film resembles Kitano's attitude toward television. "Just as he manages multiple TV appearances by improvising," writes Gerow, "so he shoots his films on the spur of the moment. It is part of his genius, but it is a genius shaped by the television industry."</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">What one sees and often admires in a Kitano film is just this freedom of style where certain techniques are not used for time-honored associations, where simplicity can surprise, where ellipses and framing oddities are there adding to (rather than subtracting from) the film experience. Someone once called Kitano the Grandma Moses of Japanese cinema, and if we remove any pejorative intent, he was right. There is the same kind of directness, of freshness, even of innocence.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">At the same time there is a polished sophistication about the product. If this is the work of an idiot savant, it is one who knows what he is doing.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">This is my opinion, however, not Gerow's. He is remarkably evenhanded in his investigation of all the films (except the last, "Hurrah for the Director," which had not yet been released). At the same time he fully displays the gamut of comment and criticism with which the local press always greets a new Kitano film.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Here (and this is one of the strengths of his book) Gerow gives the reader insight into the expressed opinions of the Japanese critical establishment. Being one of the few film scholars who can actually read and write Japanese, he opens up territory that will be new to the English reader and that gives authority to the author himself.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Geneva" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Here too Gerow is evenhanded and even the silliest comment gets a respectful hearing. This may lend a certain solemnity to the book (particularly given the gleefully subversive frivolity of his subject), but the fairness is evident and the scholarship is most impressive.</SPAN></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>