Glory to the Filmmaker!

2007 Japanese film

June 2, 2007 (2007-06-02)

CountryJapanLanguageJapanese

Glory to the Filmmaker! (監督·ばんざい!, Kantoku · Banzai!) is a 2007 Japanese film written, directed, edited by the film's lead star Takeshi Kitano. It is the second film in Kitano's surrealist autobiographical trilogy, following Takeshis', and concluding with Achilles and the Tortoise.

Style

The comedy crosses a broad range of genres common to Japanese film in a fashion similar to Getting Any?, Kitano's 1995 parody.^{[citation needed]} Kitano described the film as "a cinematic extension of his manzai comedy routines that continues in much the same vein as his last feature, the similarly eclectic Takeshis'."^[1]

Plot

Kitano plays a hapless film director in search of a commercial hit, while suffering failure after failure as he tries out different genres.

Cast

Takeshi Kitano
Tōru Emori
Kayoko Kishimoto
Anne Suzuki
Keiko Matsuzaka
Yoshino Kimura
Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Yuki Uchida
Akira Takarada
Yumiko Fujita
Ren Osugi
Susumu Terajima
Naomasa Musaka

Reception

In 2007, the Venice Film Festival introduced a new award named after the film; Kitano was the first recipient of this Glory to the Filmmaker! award.^[2]

References

^ "Is it 'Beat' or 'Kitano'? Takeshi on "Kantoku – Banzai!"". Archived from the original on May 29, 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
^ Venice to hand out Kitano prize. Variety Asia Online. Archived September 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine