JFF23: Citizen Kitano

Synopsis

Explosive and unpredictable to the extreme, Kitano’s immense lifetime of work has cultivated his legendary image among cult audiences across the globe. An icon of Japanese cinema, Kitano’s boundary-pushing directorial success is famously shadowed by his highly popular comedy personality ‘Beat Takeshi’ on Japanese television. Composed of exclusive interviews and archival footage with significant figures such as Akira Kurosawa and David Bowie, this dynamic documentary presents a stark portrait of what led to Kitano’s fruition into an artist obsessed with gunning self-expression and the darker truths of the Japanese condition. From the yakuza street gangs of a war-torn city to winner of a Golden Lion in Venice, director Yves Montmayeur condenses an incomprehensibly vast personality into momentary clarity.