Hey folks, Harry here with a report from the Rotterdam International Film Festival and man... man oh man oh man do I wish I had been there for this. This sounds just fantastic. To see Takeshi Kitano drunk in Rotterdam doing a Q&A - that would have been something... amazing. I'll still never forget Tarantino's blind drunk introduction to WHITE LIGHTNING... "Burt Reynolds Is A Sweaty Fucking God, Maaaaan!" that was hilarious. This would have ruled...
Hey Harry,
You know the deal long time reader, but first time I sent you anything.
I just returned from a screening of Zatoichi, the opening film of the 33rd International Film festival of Rotterdam.
Takeshi Kitano was there to introduce the film, as well as one of the producers, and a translator who also worked at office kitano. I wasn’t smart enough to bring a camera, or to make notes but here’s sort of what I remember.
Mr Takeshi started with apologizing, explaining that this was the 3rd screening he had to introduce that night, the first two being screenings for invited VIP's and that between screenings he had had a couple of glasses of wine, and that he in fact was a bit drunk. He was sorry that he was drunk especially since we actually paid for this screening. He then went on to say that there have been a lot of Japanese sword fights recently in movies, naming Kill Bill and the Last samurai, but that Zatoichi was the first real Japanese sword fight movie, because well, he was Japanese. And those other movies were fake American Japanese sword fight movies. As most sword fights only last very short with two hits as most he wanted to show that.
After that introduction the director of the festival explained that there would not be a Q & A after the movie, since it started late at 23 pm and that Mr Takeshi wasn’t the only one who had had a bit too much red wine, but instead of that he would ask a few Questions before the movie started.
He first asked what the most difficult part was of playing a blind man. To which Mr Takeshi replied that he usually had big white cards with his lines on them so he could read them while filming a scene, but that wasn’t possible since he played a blind man in this movie.
The next question was if that mattered much since he didn’t really have much lines in this movie, to which Mr Takeshi replied that he really only played a side character in this movie and that the only reason they couldn’t take out his character completely was because the movie was titled Zatoichi.
The next question was about the similarities of the movie with musicals, as the movie ends with a big dance number. Mr Takeshi explained that a lot of the old 60’s and 70’s movies always ended with a big song and dance number, so he wanted to do one to, and to give it his own twist he put in the tap dancing, because he used to tap in his old stand up comedian days.
The last Question was if there was going to be a sequel and if this was the start of a new Zatoichi franchise. Mr Takeshi replied that he wasn’t really interested in a sequel and that he just wanted to make the movies that he wanted to make. But if his next few movies would do bad, he would probably make another zatoichi movie to save his career. The festival director then asked if a crossover with the terminator would be an option, to which Mr Takeshi replied yes either a crossover with the terminator, or the matrix.
After that the movie started.
I won’t bore you with a complete review, since there have been several already, All I have to say about it is that it’s a great movie, I just saw the last samurai last week for the first time, and I’ve seen Kill Bill 4 times so far, but like Takeshi Kitano said this is the first real Japanese Sword fight movie I’ve seen. I loved it, I’m a big fan of the comic Usagi Yojimbo, and frankly this movie has the same style and feel as the comic. All in all an excellent start of a film festival.
If you decide to use this you can call me
Mr Tough Guy
