Glory to the Filmmaker!

Conveniently using an expressionless lookalikepapier-mâché doll as a stand-in for thedull, dangerous or foul-smelling times in life,a director named Kitano struggles to renewhimself and to finish his latest film. Mergingromantic drama, martial arts, J-horror and scifi,the film in the film – as well as the actualfilm – twists the meta-concept and takes dualpersonalities further.Filmmaker, actor and TV-personality Kitano,who entered television as the comedian BeatTakeshi in 1972, is in a playful, self-reflexiveperiod of movie making. Together with hisprevious feature “Takeshis’” from 2005, hestates that “Glory to the Filmmaker!” is a selfproclaimed,ongoing creative destruction of hispersona and career. The director in the film –and his efforts to renew himself through crazy merging and splitting of his personality – is asmuch a description of the “real” Kitano gaggingabout, and directing “Glory to the Filmmaker!”.In honor of Kitano’s work, Venice Film Festivalhas now established Kantoku Banzai!, a lifetimeachievement award. Not surprisingly, the awardwent to Kitano himself in its initial year.

Premiere Status
Nordic Premiere: Orig. title
Kantoku Banzai!: Cast
"Beat" Takeshi, Tohru Emori, Kayoko Kishimoto: Producer
Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida: Script
Takeshi Kitano: Cinematography
Katsumi Yanagijima: Music
Shin-ichiro Ikebe: Spoken language
Japanese