ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE

AKIRES TO KAME

(Japan, 2008, 119 mins)

35mm

US Premiere

Cast: Beat Takeshi, Kanako Higuchi, Yurei Yanagi, Kumiko Aso, Akira Nakao, Masatoh Ibu, Reo Yoshioka, Mariko Tstusui, Ren Ohsugi, Aya Enjouji, Eri Tokunaga, Nao Omori
Producers: Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida
Director of Photography: Katsumi Yanagijima
Editors: Takeshi Kitano, Yoshinori Ota
Music: Yuki Kajiura
Sound Design: Senji Horiuchi
Production Design: Norihiro Isoda

The West has no real analogue to Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. One of Japan's best-known celebrities, he has been a stand-up comic, TV personality, novelist, painter, academic and, as international film buffs know, a major film director. The fluidity he's demonstrated in his creative life is also echoed in his film work, which deals with shifting identities, self-construction and playful reinvention. He reinvented the yakuza (gangster) genre, adding surprising emotional depth and idiosyncratic tonal shifts to films including SONATINE and FIREWORKS before moving on to semiautobiographical works including KIDS RETURN. With ACHILLES, he completes a trilogy about the clash between artistic expression and societal constraint, between creativity and commerce. The story follows Machisu, who as a boy demonstrates a gift and passion for painting. As we trace his life—a teenager deep into his creations, a student wrestling with modern art, an adult, making a living painting reproductions in between working on his own pieces—we see the struggle of the individual against the soul-crushing realities of capitalism. Machisu loses everything, but keeps painting. He's left, as perhaps he prefers, alone with his art. But is it any good? And who's to judge? Kitano weaves together the comic and tragic, the absurd and the inspiring to tell a compelling story that richly resonates with his own life.

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