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9781844571659

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http://www.midnighteye.com/books/kitano-takeshi.shtml The long-awaited publication of Kitano Takeshi, the first book-length study of the director's complete work, goes quite a ways to answering the question at the head of this review. Aaron Gerow - another man of incontestable credentials thanks to his stints teaching Japanese cinema at the University of Yokohama, Yale and his lengthy tenure as a film critic for the Daily Yomiuri - presents Kitano as an almost schizophrenic personality, made of two distinct personas: the director Takeshi Kitano and the comedian Beat Takeshi. Two personalities that are usually at odds, sometimes at war and occasionally in harmony. Both straight man and buffoon, Kitano forms a one-man manzai act. Gerow posits this duality as the key to analyzing and understanding Kitano's films. The opening chapter, entitled Introducing Two Takeshis, sets the stage, departing from a variety of opinions and attempts by other critics to pierce the mystery. In this chapter and throughout his book, the author makes ample reference to Japanese sources, which opens up a far wider reading of Kitano - one that includes the media personality Beat Takeshi of whom most westerners, including his fans and critics, still have only the slightest inkling, but which forms a crucial factor in understanding the man and his movies. At the same time, this use of Japanese sources also feels

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Aaron Gerow is Assistant Professor of Japanese Cinema, Yale University.

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