Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

dvckings The film is very poetic! If you are looking for a traditional narrative format, you may not be satisfied. It is a very complex film, and the structure is very complicated, too. The plot seems not making any sense, but it is so attractive, making you watch it all the way from the top to the end. Though the flow of the film is like dreaming, all the transitions are so smooth and surprising. The film creates you a very rare film-watching experience, which is very unique and new. Maybe, it is Takeshi's version of Fellini's "8 1/2" In my opinion, it is the 2nd best film of all Takeshi's work, after Hana-bi. It is very courage for Takeshi making this successful film.

Andrez Bergen Two years after dusting down Shintaro Katsu's blind Zatoichi persona for his quirky period-drama re-jig, Takeshi Kitano is back in his own original territory - with a somewhat intriguing inclination towards double-vision. Takeshis', which debuted at this year's Venice International Film Festival and subsequently screened at the celluloid festas in Vancouver, Toronto and London, has thus far traversed a bumpy course, with critical maulings riding shotgun up there alongside the more expected superlatives. On one level a homage to the yakuza gangster flicks Kitano helped to define (since taken to the violent extreme by Takeshi Miike in Ichi The Killer), this movie also doubles as a parody of the style and might just be Kitano's farewell kiss to same. The 58-year-old writer/director has quipped that this is a funeral for the genres he explored over the last dozen movies, in particular the gangster premise, and die he apparently does - several times over - as do more than half the cast and extras in a series of grandiose shoot-outs. The yakuza die. The samurai and the sumo die. Heck, even the deejay in the club scene dies. In the process Takeshis' throws together a smattering of melancholia, a whacked- out sense of humor, tap-dancing musical interludes, a Bonnie & Clyde twist, and touts more guns than a John Woo slug-fest. The narrative structure is as peppered as a spray of bullets from an Uzi. The gist of the story is a shake-down of two characters played by 'Beat' Takeshi (Kitano) himself: one the "real life" movie star/director, and the other a shy, deadbeat convenience store clerk who aspires to an actor. But there's a third overwhelming id here, and that's Kitano's own on-screen alter ego from those earlier yakuza romps. The question - which one of these three is the real McCoy? - disintegrates as proceedings reach out on a surreal, metaphysical limb in which dreams interplay with reality, nightmares become farce - and then all swings violently back into an unsure version of the here and now. This makes for a sublime visual feast that's as baffling as it is refreshing. Kitano's trilogy of parts aside, there's a bevy of other doppelgangers, mirror images and dead-ringers rife throughout this movie. Kotomi Kyono, while a tad dull as the movie star Takeshi's girlfriend, bears more than just costume jewelery sparkle in her ulterior role as a glitzy, ditsy yakuza girlfriend who happens to be the deadbeat Takeshi's tormenting neighbor. As the creative synod here, Kitano certainly isn't afraid to poke fun at himself or the genres he's looked at more seriously in the past. But, after teasing with some mischievous insights, he then skirts the issue. And the weak moments in Kitano's earlier film Dolls (2002) - self-conscious "artistic" references - are stitched into Takeshis' with abandon. A recurring clown motif, bullets-as-star- constellations riff, and heavy-handed symbolism (in this case of a caterpillar) almost bludgeon the viewer, as if Monty Python had taken a blunt instrument to David Lynch - rendering it all a bit like Eraserhead on a bad hair day. Not that this is such a bad thing; at times, it's brilliant. In some bizarre way - don't bother asking how - Kitano pulls off the slap-stick Mothra-sized larva pantomime that appears at various stages throughout proceedings. But on the whole it's these asides that make the movie lurch, and off-shoots like the World War II scenes that book-end the film come off as just plain obscure. Takeshis' could have been that much stronger a movie. As it stands, in spite of (or because of) the pointed vignettes, the tap-dancing, and the associated meanderings-within-daydreams, it's a minor masterpiece. Just.ANDREZ BERGEN

Spuzzlightyear Having seen a lot of Kitano Takeshi's work, one has to realize that this guy is totally hit and miss. Sonatine? Hit. Brother? Miss. Zaitochi? Hit. ? Miss. And then we have Takeshis, which I'm proud to say is probably the worst movie I've seen in a number of years. This film, about 2 Beat Takeshis! One the famous one, and one a failed actor. Both lead their respective lives, with one basking in the glow of his fame, and the other struggling to get by, But when the failed actor gets a hold of some weapons, he decides to become Takeshi the gangster, just like the movies! All this sounds incredibly neat, doesn't it? But the film is presented in such a jumbled mess and scenes and characters that don't make any sense until the last scenes of the film, and it's a total cheat. Make that a DOUBLE cheat, because there's two false endings in the film, both will make you groan, because they're the cheapest way to explain everything that happened. Kitano should be embarrassed with himself.

Richard I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.Takeshis' is the latest film from writer/director Takeshi Kitano. He apparently got the idea for this film shortly after finishing Sonatine (1993). Kitano was previously at the festival in 2003 with Zatoichi, which won the People's Choice Award that year.Takeshis' finds him playing two roles: one is a version of his real-life actor persona, Beat Takeshi; the other is a mild-mannered convenience store clerk/amateur actor named Kitano. The lives and the dreams of the two men intersect and parallel each other continuously throughout the film.Actors, scenes, and elements from Kitano's other films (Sonatine, Kikujiro, Brother, and Zatoichi to name a few) show up frequently as the two men have waking dreams involving each other's lives.The Beat Takeshi of the film is almost a stylized version of his real self, as the public might perceive him. This feeds into the fantasies of the clerk Kitano, who dreams of being Beat Takeshi, taking out his frustrations with the world in a hail of gunfire, just like in the movies.The film is constantly jumping between reality and fantasy, from one character to another, rooted in the present but with flashes into the future. It can make it difficult to follow at times, leaving you to wonder whose perspective is being shown on screen and whether it exists in the dream world or the real world or something in between.The film was enjoyable and not overly impenetrable, with its share of humorous moments and trademark flashes of sudden violence. Still, the movie is not quite as accessible as his other films, with the exception of Dolls, and while not strictly necessary, familiarity with Kitano's previous work heightens the viewing experience.