Psycho Killer
 
Nagisa Oshima, the director of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, was the first who steered Takeshi away from comedy, by commenting that he'd be great playing a criminal. Takeshi followed Oshima's advice, and took the role as a psycho killer in a TV show that became a big hit. Takeshi continued to act in TV dramas, and extended his range by hosting talk shows and by writing humorous short stories. He did this on the side with "The Two Beats", before the act broke up in the early 80's. Takeshi then began acting in movies, and made his debut in Ikuo Sekimoto's, Danpu-Wataridori in 1981. In this movie, Takeshi plays a policeman who tosses off a lot of gags. This movie didn't become a success.

"The problem then, Takeshi says, was that the people started to laugh, because they thought I was the comedian "Beat" Takeshi. The first role people took me seriously in was, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence with Mr. Oshima. That made the Japanese people realize that I could act as well".

Takeshi continued acting in movies, and (as he mentioned before) won international attention for the first time, in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, 1983. In this movie Takeshi plays a typical Japanese solider, Sgt.Hara, obedient, brutal and sentimental when drunk. This movie, Oshima's first in English, was a strange haunting drama set in a Japanese POW camp, centering on test of wills between two martinet Commanders played by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie. Since then, Takeshi has maintained an incredibly prolific and diverse career, and has become Japan's foremost Media personality. He stars in seven TV programs each week (at least), appears in commercials and publishes columns in several magazines and newspapers. Takeshi also paints witty and accomplished cartoon-style pictures, writes poetry and serious novels.

"My publisher calls me a 'permanent anarchist', but I worry about living up to a label like that. Won't I soften? Aren't I doomed to disappoint audience expectations? But one of the reasons I became a comedian in the first place is that comedians can say things that are very harsh or very close to the bone, and be allowed to say them. In Japan, that's a unique position. Even though I've expressed what are probably minority points of view and said things that may not be socially accepted, I have somehow been accepted by the Japanese public".

Takeshi acts in movies for other directors as well. He starred alongside Keanu Reeves and Dolph Lundgren in Robert Longo's science-fiction epic Johnny Mnemonic from 1995. He also starred as the one eyed gay hit man Kyoya, in Takashi Ishii's Gonin, 1995, and in the adaptation of his own novel, Many Happy Returns, 1993. Which was a satire on Japanese religious cults, directed by his former assistant Toshihiro Tenma.
 
Kinji Fukasaku Dropped Out
 
Takeshi did his directorial debut in 1989, with the yakuza thriller Violent Cop.

"Making films is very different from doing comedy. When I do comedy, I want immediate laughter; I'm not trying to give the audience a deep experience. But I want my films to be something people can sink their teeth into".

Takeshi was originally only going to star in Violent Cop, but when the director, Kinji Fukasaku, (best known for his Jingi Naki Tatakai- Battles Without Honour or Humanity, 1973-76 series) dropped out, the producers asked Takeshi if he would be interested in directing the movie.

"I said yes", Takeshi explains. "The problem was that I had never directed and I had never studied directing, even though I had watched a few films in my time. There was a crew who had been in the industry for a long time and who had studied the usual methods, which were based on the Western influence- moving the camera, getting different camera angles. The problem with moving the camera in Japan, though, is that when you move it, you always get something you don't want in the frame. So I had to fight with my staff to get these shots with very little movement. After the movie came out, people said I didn't know how to make films".

Takeshi's use of long, static shots and the performance lends to a chilling tranquility to Violent Cop, Boiling Point and Sonatine. Violence explodes from silence and is captured by a still, unblinking camera. Takeshi says his approach to movie violence was influenced by the famous documentary footage of a suspected Viet Cong guerilla being shot by an American solider during the bloody Tet offensive 1968.

"There is no movement in the camera," says Takeshi. "No up or down, that, and when I saw a man who'd been stabbed in my neighborhood, is the most shocking thing I've ever seen. Violence is like comedy; it affects us suddenly, without warning. In boxing, I think it's scarier to watch one punch than to watch someone being beaten".
 

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