G 2017 Ghost in the Shell Aramaki (credited as: "Beat" Takeshi Kitano)

No films in this section.

1. 1

   The right half of his face was paralyzed as a result of an accident.

2. 2

   Kitano, who has an incomplete but sufficiently fundamental higher technical education, has a thorough interest in mathematics. By his own account, if he had not "gone astray" at the time by taking up the performing arts, he would have realized his plan to become a mathematician. At the same time, Kitano's statements about mathematics are quite contradictory: from the assertion that by its means one can describe the world and everything that happens in it, to the mini-farce staged in his own educational television program, where Kitano said that when studying mathematics at school, it is enough for students' answers to coincide with the correct ones, and the rest is of no particular importance. Be that as it may, for many years Kitano has done and continues to do much to popularize mathematics on television, where he tries to convey to viewers the beauty of this science in an accessible form. Kitano's contribution was recognized with an award from the Japanese National Mathematical Society in 2008.

3. 3

   He forbids being filmed from the right side, as the right half of his face was paralyzed as a result of an accident.

4. 4

   Takeshi Kitano and his wife have two children: a son, Atsushi (born March 31, 1981), and a daughter, Shoko (born October 5, 1982).

5. 5

   Kitano has written more than fifty books of poetry and film criticism, as well as several novels, some of which were used as screenplays by other directors. Kitano has also been a well-known television host for many years. On September 7, 2004, Kitano was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree by Meiji University, from which he had previously been expelled.

6. 6

   He forbids asking questions about his father. In this connection, there are rumors that his father was a member of the Yakuza. It is believed that this is precisely why he manages to convey the ways of the Yakuza so subtly in his films.

7. 7

   In 1992, a series of essays by Kitano was published in the monthly magazine Shincho 45, in which he criticized with great sarcasm and skepticism the "environmental boom" that had begun at that time in Japan's political and financial circles, calling it a swindle and showing its hollowness. In June of the same year, a scathing article titled "Beat Takeshi and Ecology" appeared on the front page of the Asahi Shimbun, in which Kitano was accused of indifference to the environmental crisis. The latter, once again exposing his critics' short-sightedness, noted in a new series of essays in the same Shincho 45 that it was unreasonable to take his words literally and so straightforwardly. The question of Kitano's attitude toward environmental problems received wide publicity, to the point that in 1996 it became the topic of an essay on the entrance exams for the Faculty of Education at Yamagata Prefectural University.

8. 8

   As an actor, he is invariably credited as Beat Takeshi; this is Takeshi Kitano's pseudonym in his stand-up career. As is known, before beginning his career in major cinema, Kitano was part of the comedy duo "Two Beat" with his friend Beat Kiyoshi.