Early life Takeshi Kitano was born in
Adachi, Tokyo, with two older brothers and an older sister. His father worked as a house painter, with Kitano revealing that he used to live like a
yakuza, while his mother was a strict disciplinarian and educator who worked in a factory. In his working-class neighborhood, the children looked up to baseball players and yakuza, with many of his neighbors being the latter.
Comedy career and success In the 1970s, he formed a comedy duo with his friend Nirō Kaneko (also called Kiyoshi Kaneko). They took on the stage names
Beat Takeshi1 and
Beat Kiyoshi; together referring to themselves as . This sort of duo comedy, known as
manzai in Japan, usually features a great deal of high-speed back-and-forth banter between the two performers. Kiyoshi played the
straight man (
tsukkomi) against Takeshi's
funny man (
boke). In 1976, they performed on television for the first time and became a success, propelling their act onto the national stage. The reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitano's material, which was much more risqué than traditional
manzai. The targets of his jokes were often the socially vulnerable, including the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, children, women, the ugly and the stupid. Complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitano's jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. Kitano confirmed in a video interview that he was forbidden to access the
NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden. Although Two Beat was one of the most successful acts of its kind during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kitano decided to go solo and the duo was dissolved. Together with
Sanma Akashiya and
Tamori, Kitano is said to be one of the "
Big Three" television comedians (
owarai tarento) of Japan. Some autobiographical elements relating to his
manzai career can be found in his 1996 film
Kids Return. Beat Kiyoshi has a bit part in Kitano's 1999 film
Kikujiro, as "Man at the Bus Stop". Kitano had also become a popular television host. ''
Takeshi's Castle was a game show hosted by Kitano in the 1980s, featuring slapstick-style physical contests. It was broadcast years later in the United States under the title Most Extreme Elimination Challenge'', with Takeshi renamed "Vic Romano". Many of Kitano's routines involved him portraying a gangster or other harsh characters. Kitano said that after playing comedy clubs he would be invited to drink with yakuza, who would tell him stories about the big crime bosses. In 1986, Kitano worked on the
Family Computer video game
Takeshi no Chōsenjō (translated as ''Takeshi's Challenge''), as a consultant and partial designer. He was the first Japanese celebrity to actively contribute to the development of a video game and starred in several commercials promoting its release. Due to the title's difficulty and confusing gameplay mechanics, it was placed first in Famitsu magazine's
kusoge (shit game) ranking, and is often referred to as one of the worst video games of all time.
Takeshi no Chōsenjō and its development was later the subject of the first episode of
GameCenter CX, a gaming variety show hosted by Osaka comedian
Shinya Arino. That same year, Kitano found himself in a legal incident when he stormed the editorial office of the weekly magazine
Friday after it published an article accusing him of an affair. In 1988, he published a memoir,
Asakusa Kid. He has also published a number of novels and other books which have been translated into French. He co-founded the Agency Office Kitano with
Masayuki Mori. After several other acting roles, mostly comedic, in 1989 he was cast as the lead in
Violent Cop. When director
Kinji Fukasaku stepped down over scheduling conflicts with Kitano, due to Kitano's TV commitments, the distributor suggested the comedian direct it at his own pace. It also started a long-running collaboration with composer
Joe Hisaishi, which would last until 2002. Although 1993's
Sonatine did poorly in Japan, it received rave reviews in Europe when it was shown at the
1993 Cannes Film Festival. Kitano made
Kids Return in 1996, soon after his recovery. The 1995 release of
Getting Any? (
Minna Yatteruka!), which was filmed before the accident, showed Kitano returning to his comedy roots. This
Airplane!-like assemblage of comedic scenes, all centering loosely around a
Walter Mitty-type character trying to have sex in a car, met with little acclaim in Japan. Much of the film satirizes popular Japanese culture, such as
Ultraman or
Godzilla and even the
Zatoichi character that Kitano himself would go on to play eight years later. That year Kitano also appeared in the film adaptation of
William Gibson's 1995
Johnny Mnemonic, credited by the mononym "Takeshi", although his on-screen time was greatly reduced for the American cut of the film. After his motorscooter accident, Kitano took up painting. His paintings have been published in books, featured in gallery exhibitions, and adorn the covers of many of the soundtrack albums for his films. His paintings were featured prominently in his most critically acclaimed film, 1997's
Hana-bi. Although for years already Kitano's largest audience had been the foreign arthouse crowd,
Hana-bi cemented his status internationally as one of Japan's foremost modern filmmakers. Although it was not a big success financially, it won the
Golden Lion award at the
1997 Venice Film Festival. A room in the basement played a 12-hour loop of his work as a TV host. Kitano's 2010 film
Outrage was screened at the
2010 Cannes Film Festival. He admitted he tried something different for
Outrage by adding a lot of dialogue, stepping back as the main character to make an ensemble piece, and having the feel of a nature documentary watching the characters kill each other. A sequel, 2012's
Outrage Beyond, was screened in competition at the
69th Venice International Film Festival. He also appeared in Yasuo Furuhata's 2012 film,
Dearest. In September 2012, Takeshi Kitano said that the producers wanted him to make a third
Outrage film depending on the box office. On 7 March 2013,
Minkei News of Hong Kong reported that Kitano won the Best Director award for
Outrage Beyond at the 7th
Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. On 10 August 2013, in an interview reported by John Bleasdale, Kitano revealed his current plans for a sequel to
Outrage Beyond and an untitled personal film project. As Kitano stated, "Ideally what would happen would be this:
Outrage Beyond becomes a huge hit, so huge that my producer allows me to make one film I really want to do and then come back to the sequel after I've made the film I really want to do." In September 2015, it was announced that Kitano would be contributing his voice and likeness to the character Toru Hirose in the
SEGA video game
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. This collaboration marked Kitano's first involvement with the video game industry in 30 years since the 1986 release of
Takeshi no Chōsenjō. Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga
Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after
Johnny Mnemonic in 1995. Although he has expressed his dislike of anime and manga in the past, he accepted the role because "even though this stylish piece of entertainment is totally different from the films I've directed, I thought it was interesting that
Aramaki, the role I play, is a character who gives off a peculiar vibe and, in various episodes, is set at the core of the characters' relationships. I'm looking forward to see how the movie turns out." In 2017, Kitano released the third and final installment in the successful
Outrage series titled
Outrage Coda. ==Awards==