(2024, Japan, 62')
“A surprising exercise in metacinema,” is how Alberto Barbera described the new work by the legendary Japanese director. Divided into two parts, the film relies on an unusual narrative structure. The first half is a violent action film centered around a hitman caught between the police and the yakuza in the dark underworld of crime. The second part retells the same story, scene by scene, but as a comedy and parody, introducing a sudden shift in genre and linguistic register.
Director, screenwriter, and actor, Takeshi Kitano (Tokyo, 1947) made his directorial debut in 1989 with Violent Cop and has since directed nineteen feature films. His 1997 film Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in Venice. In 2003, he returned to the Lido with The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, which won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize. His works range from auteur dramas, like Dolls (2002), to crime genres, like the Outrage trilogy (2010-2017). His latest film, Kubi (2023), was presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
