Takeshi Kitano

Japanese film director, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter and video game designer (born 1947)

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Momentum5.6
Japan rank#243
Directors rank#177
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Born 1947 · age 79Japan

Japan DirectorsMovie Director

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Wikipedia
68 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Japan
#243
Directors
Age
79
Born 1947
Known for
Ghost in the Shell
2017

Summary

Updated 2026-06-11

In Japan, he's the comedian who dominated 1980s TV with brutal wit and 29% ratings. Everywhere else, he's the deadpan auteur who won Venice's top prize and made yakuza films that barely move until they explode.

Biography

About

Takeshi Kitano started as a strip-theater comic in Asakusa while studying at Meiji University, forming the duo Two Beat in 1973 and riding the comedy boom with black humor sharp enough to cut. By the 1980s he owned Japanese television—Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku and Takeshi's Castle made him inescapable. Nagisa Ōshima cast him in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence in 1983, opening the film door. He stepped behind the camera by accident in 1989 when Kinji Fukasaku dropped out of Violent Cop, then kept going. Hana-bi took the Golden Lion at Venice in 1997, making him the third Japanese director after Kurosa…

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