Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The award-winning art film "Hana-Bi", the stoic gangster elegy "Sonatine", the surfer romance "A Scene at the Sea", the absurdist comedy "Getting Any?", the entertainment samurai spectacle "Zatoichi" - very different films made under one name "Kitano Takeshi." Who is this varied and sometimes elusive "Kitano Takeshi"? What relationship does he have to "Beat Takeshi," the name he also uses as an actor and immensely popular media personality in Japan? Is he an artistic auteur in the traditional sense, offering a singular vision easily identifiable in all his work, or a new kind of star who manages multiples identities, strategically …