"Takeshi Kitano is this well-known Japanese film-maker, who was awarded the Golden Lion at the" "1997 Venice Film Festival for his movie:" "Hana Bi." "But who is Beat Takeshi, actor, photographer, writer," "painter," "singer, radio and TV speaker." "Takeshi Kitano" "The Japanese do not know me as a film-maker." "Radio Tokyo FM" "Say, Master, when I came into the recording studio," "I saw quite a lot of strangers behind the window." "They came to sell fake phone cards!" "These guys escorted you all the way?" "Like a king, really!" "At the end of the previous recording, an English TV crew was there" "I am highly praised by the foreign press as a film-maker." "You think that I am Beat Takeshi, but abroad if I say Takeshi Kitano, it really works!" "To avoid focusing on the movies," "I have other activities in different medias." "I meet people from different worlds, so I acquire knowledge." "Myself I try to be as varied as possible." "TV Asahi / TV Tackle Show" "Kisho Kurokawa / Beat Takeshi" "Have you already worked for individuals?" "My first commission was a private house." "Just before that work I had planned to build a kennel." "Movies are something synthetic." "They bring together music, screenplay, novel," "photo," "comedy." "You have to be receptive to everything, like an aerial." "Working on TV, helps me directing for the screen" "TV comedy helps me setting up comedy scenes in my movies." "I cannot say I do TV in order to make films." "I also do it for money and for my production company." "The meat is still red!" "No problem." "No problem?" "Really?" "You got to eat the skin because it's soft." "Go ahead, I didn't add anything." "Yes, Mmmmm." "About comedy on TV, people wonder why I do this drag act." "I can even lose all my credit as a film-maker, it has a rather efficient comical effect." "On the opposite," "I can absolutely use TV comedy for the cinema." "Hana-bi / Takeshi Kitano" "I started my career as a Manzai, a comical duo based on dialogues." "I was very successful at that time." "When I speak in the movies, it creates the same atmosphere as on TV and everyone laughs even if I do a serious act." "It can't work." "That's why I don't speak much on the screen." "The other reason is that for me images are more important than words." "Generally," "I don't rely on words in communication." "Hana-bi / Takeshi Kitano" "My movies are often silent, in spite of the risk of parodying the early silent movie comedies." "On the opposite," "it's difficult not to speak on TV because the video image doesn't have any perspective or depth." "In Japan, there is this strange habit of changing names for the actors like in the Kabuki theatre, let's say stage names." "It's as if I was operating two puppets, one is Beat Takeshi, the other is Kitano Takeshi." "I use either one or the other depending on the moment." "I operate these two puppets very consciously." "I wonder if I am not a schizophrenic, but real schizophrenics are not conscious of the manipulation." "When I am with girls," "I ask them who they prefer Kitano or Beat Takeshi, if they prefer Kitano, I play Kitano." "When I make love, I don't know anymore." "I'm mixing up, I guess!" "Hana-bi / Takeshi Kitano" "When I was at school or High school," "I was a very bad pupil." "My only thought was to become a Yakuza or to become the leader of the craftsmen in the area." "Today, I think that everything has changed." "Fight after fight" "the older ones teached us how to beat the others." "In your interviews with the foreign press, you speak of the relationship between your movies and the" "Zen spirit and violence and Yakuzas too!" "Oh yeah?" "Zen, violence and Yakuzas!" "Yes, they always ask me if I know the Yakuzas." "I can't say that I don't know any." "When they ask me if I like the Yakuzas," "I can't say yes, but if I say no, they're gonna hit me." "I hate talking about sex." "With women." "I always say yes." "I am very weak." "I sometimes shot scenes where women were beaten, but I don't like showing intimacy, physical personal things like eating or making love." "I don't like showing that, except violence." "Hana-bi / Takeshi Kitano" "Considering the district where I grew up," "I am used to violence." "Personally, I was arrested once" "I did some damages in a publishing company." "At the beginning of my Manzai career," "I was also arrested for a bad story." "Today, every time I am tempted by violence," "I ask myself whether it's worthwhile." "And sometimes I do feel like killing someone, but if I do it, it will be the end for me, in real society because of the law." "Hana-bi / Takeshi Kitano" "In the movies as much as on TV, the real world is shown according to the codes of fiction." "For the moment," "I try to describe the real world in my movies." "For cinema" "I don't know if we can use the words "real world" or "reality", but in any case the movies cannot be reality." "Even in the documentary reports and the TV news, one can be suspicious about the images, because they are framed." "At the beginning, subjects, but it will surely change soon." "In the movies as well as on TV" "I am still a beginner." "Painting and song / Beat Takeshi"