Takeshi Kitano

Takeshi Kitano was born in 1947 in Tokyo, and started his entertainment career as a comedian in a nightclub that features striptease and comedy sketches. As a comedy ("Manzai") duo "Two Beat", he established his fame as the leader of the "Manzai boom" in 1980's Japan.

Kitano moved into acting quickly, appeared in movies such as Nagisa Oshima's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" in 1983. His directoral debut was in 1989 with "Violent Cop" ("Sono Otoko Kyobo ni Tsuki"), and several gangstar/yakuza movies followed.

He was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1995, and his aesthetic taste in film changed since then. In 1997, "Hana-bi", which he wrote, directed and starred, won Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion and confirmed his position in the international film scene. He continued to direct and act in the films such as "Kikujiro", "Brother" and "Zatoichi". As an actor for other directors, he played in Kinji Fukasaku's controversial violence film "Battle Royale", and recently in Yoichi Sai's powerful Korean-Japanese tale "Blood and Bones".

In addition to his film career, he still keeps one of the top TV personality status in Japan, appearing in various comedy and variety shows. One of his early comedy-reality show "MXC" (Japanese title: "Fu-un Takeshi-jo") is currently aired on Spike TV in the U.S.