Kantoku - Banzai (Kitano finally gone mad) (2007)

[quote=“Hung Fist”]
I never cared that much (on Kitano level) for Kikujiro but yeah, no more craziness please. If lack of money was the story behind A Scene at the Sea then somebody please steal all Kitano’s money ;D
[/quote]

I get what you guys are saying, but all I really want to see from Kitano is personal work. If that means he has to make crazy films like Takeshis’ to display what he is feeling at the moment, then so be it.

I was right, Kitano has gone mad. Kantoku banzai is a mentally insane movie… moderately funny at that I must say, but well, it’s insane even by japanese standards. My comments from another thread (the rating is almost 3, I originally was gonna give it a 3, changed it to 2,5 while writing the comments, edited it back to 3 an hour later, and then came to think of Dai nipponjin which I also gave a 3, and went back to 2,5 with Kantoku. So, it’s a border case to say at least (;D) but 2,5 is my official view till the next viewing):



Kantoku Banzai! (Japan, 2007) – 2,5/5

It’s official, Kitano has gone mad. Kantoku Banzai! makes his previous work Takeshis’ look line a coherent piece of cinema. No wonder he shot this movie in secret. While the first 40 minutes, where Kitano plays a film director with no success at the box office, actually make some slight sense, the rest is just 100% Kitano’s brain waves transcribed into film frames (and those ain’t no Hana-Bi waves). Everything is incredibly stupid and childish, but also confusing enough to be funny. Shame about Anne Suzuki’s talent being wasted in a mess like this, but then again, the film is all about Kitano and nobody else. I wonder if any director has ever made a film as egocentric as this before.



[quote=“Hung Fist”]
I wonder if any director has ever made a film as egocentric as this before.
[/quote]

Kitano mentioned a film by Kurosawa that is appearently in the same style, but the title escapes me.



I liked Kantoku Banzai. You never knew what came next and it was often funny.

The first half was like brainstorming, some nice scenes. The second half everything stopped making sense (which I liked) - Slapstick, manga-like craziness, etc…



I give it a 3,5/5