Country: Japan
Year: 2023
Duration: 131'
Aiming to control Japan, Lord Nobunaga Oda was engaged in fierce battles with the Mouri, Takeda, and Uesugi armies, as well as with the forces of temples and shrines in Kyoto. Meanwhile, Nobunaga’s vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears. Nobunaga gathered his vassals, including Mitsuhide Akechi and Hideyoshi Hashiba, and ordered them to search for Murashige in exchange for his heirship. Hideyoshi, together with his brother Hidenaga and military strategist Kanbei Kuroda, devised a plan and instructed former ninja-turned-entertainer, Sorori Shinzaemon, to find Murashige. In fact, Hideyoshi was aiming to take advantage of the uproar to subvert Nobunaga and Mitsuhide and control Japan himself.
Biography
film director
Takeshi Kitano
(Tokyo, 1947), also known by the pseudonym Beat Takeshi, became famous as a cabaret comedian (the so-called "manzai") after dropping out of university. He initially performed in theaters and later on television. After strarring in Nagisa Ôshima’s Furyo in 1983, he ventured into directing in 1989 with Violent Cop, followed by Boiling Point in 1990 and A Scene at the Sea the following year. With Sonatine, presented at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section in 1993, he gained recognition as one of the foremost living film directors, a status further solidified in 1997 when he won the Golden Lion for another masterpiece, Fireworks. He went on to direct acclaimed films such as Kikujiro, presented at Cannes in 1999; Dolls, in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2002; Zatoichi, also in competition at Venice in 2003. After a few introspective films like Takeshis’, unexpectedly presented at Venice in 2005, he returned to his beloved yakuza genre in 2010 with Outrage, followed by Outrage Beyond in 2012 and Outrage Coda in 2017. His epic work Kubi, based on his novel, premiered at Cannes in 2023.
FILMOGRAFIA
Sono otoko, kyobo ni tsuki (Violent Cop, 1989), 3-4x juugatsu (Boiling Point – I nuovi gangster, 1990), Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi (Il silenzio sul mare, 1991), Sonatine (id., 1993), Minnâ-yatteruka! (Getting Any?, 1994), Kidzu ritan (Kids Retrurn, 1996), Hana-bi (Hana-bi – Fiori di fuoco, 1997), Kikujirō no natsu (L’estate di Kikujiro, 1999), Burazā (Brother, 2000), Dōruzu (Dolls, 2002), Zatōichi (id., 2003), TAKESHIS’ (Takeshis’, 2005), Kantoku – Banzai! (Glory to the Filmmaker, 2007), One Fine Day (cm, ep di Chacun son cinéma, 2007), Akiresu to Kame (Achille e la tartaruga, 2008), Autoreiji (Outrage, 2010), Autoreiji Biyondo (Outrage Beyond, 2012), Ryūzō to shichinin no kobuntachi (Ryuzo 7, 2015), Autoreiji Saishūshō (Outrage Coda, 2017), Kubi (2023).
Declaration
film director
“When you look at Japanese history, the Warring States era, which is when the story takes place, is the most interesting period for me. But usually, the history has been written by the people surrounding these great, powerful figures and it was often not truthful or factional. With regard to the uprising, there are many different theories about what actually happened. I really looked into it and then I used my imagination and came up with a theory. Of course, an academic watching it might say it’s not true. But I think most of what I have portrayed is what actually happened.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, PRODUCER: Takeshi Kitano. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Takeshi Hamada. EDITING: Takeshi Kitano, Yoshinori Ohta. MUSIC: Tarô Iwashiro. CAST: Takeshi Kitano, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano, Shido Nakamura, Nao Ohmori, Yuichi Kimura, Keichi Endo, Kaoru Kobayashi, Ittoku Kishibe. PRODUCTION: Kadokawa, Toho Company.
CONTACT: Kadokawa Corporation zeze-m@kadokawa.jp
