If you don't know Beat Takeshi let me explain; He's a different type of badass. He doesn't have great karate skills or runs around hanging from helicopters and jumping away from explosions in slow motion and what not. Even without a language barrier, he doesn't say much, so he's not really a tough talker. Doesn't even
bother trying to look tough. He mostly sits there in sunglasses with an indecipherable look on his face, as if smiling at something...but you're not sure what. When he removes his sunglasses, his eyes are a total blank, so they don't really help at all. He's somewhat a friendly, joking kind of guy, like a friendly old neighbor, but he's also really good at punching you in the kidney with a knife, or hiding guns in places so he can pop them out and shoot a room full of people before they can think what to do. While some people might argue that this film is too commercial and lacks the artistic value of other films I'd later see from the director, what has not changed is Kitano's love in exploring the complexity of human choice under extreme condition. The film has a charm all its' own and would be an ideal place to start if curious about the world of Takeshi Kitano as he points towards a new direction for the yakuza genre.
April 12, 2008
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