Kitano Quotes & Sayings

I intentionally shoot violence to make the audience feel real pain. I have never and I will never shoot violence as if it's some kind of action video game. — Takeshi Kitano

The thing about art for me is that you can go on theorising your work forever, because it's open to interpretation. — Takeshi Kitano

My film directorial career has been nothing but repetition of one failure after another! — Takeshi Kitano

Sword fighting in film is not about how good the fighter is, but how good the actor receiving the blows is. — Takeshi Kitano

For me comedy and violence has a lot in common. Just as you expect, comedy always lurks behind the most unexpected of circumstances. — Takeshi Kitano

I do all these various activities like painting and writing, comedy and films probably because not that I'm good at everything but because I'm not good at any of these things. — Takeshi Kitano

I believe you shouldn't force the audience's interpretation of a character or a story. The more you explain things, the less intriguing and imaginable they are for viewers ... Film to me, in its essence, in its ultimate nature, is silent. Music and dialogue are there to fill what is lacking in the image. But you should be able to tell the story with moving pictures alone. For my next project, though, I'd like to make the kind of film where the characters blabber all the time. — Takeshi Kitano

Humour is like violence. They both come to you unexpectedly, and the more unpredictable they both are, the better it gets. — Takeshi Kitano

I thought maybe I could become like the next Van Gogh. I bought a sunflower and painted it, and it looked like the work of a 6-year-old. — Takeshi Kitano

The contemporary Japanese directors who are well-known in the West - say, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takeshi Kitano, Naomi Kawase - are mostly unknown to Japanese, particularly of the younger generation. — Hirokazu Koreeda

I always come to conclusions very fast. Well, that is one way of thinking, and the other way would be that I lack the necessary perseverance to stick to one thing that really fits me. I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing. — Takeshi Kitano

I paint for the sheer joy of painting. I have never sold any of my paintings. I'd rather give them to people for free. — Takeshi Kitano

The film is ambiguous, an ambiguity that reflects on Japan today, and a world in which nothing is clear. Once I made the film, I realized it was about this feeling of vague disquiet in Japan and in the rest of the world, a feeling that is gaining on us, getting less vague. — Takeshi Kitano

When people tell me I'm an artist, I say, 'What?' It's impossible for me to take the idea seriously. — Takeshi Kitano

One thing I hate in movies is when the camera starts circling around the characters. I find that totally fake. — Takeshi Kitano

I don't really expect much from my life. So when I heard my films are premiering in film festival circuits I was glad of course but I thought it was lucky accident. — Takeshi Kitano

Personally, I think 'Dead Americans' is the best title I have, but you can't win with everyone. Titles have to be short, catchy, not too obscure, not offensive, and still capture the genre, and so on and so forth. Takeshi Kitano has it about right when he says he'd just like to title his films by number. — Ben Peek