ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE (AKIRES TO KAME)

Japan - 2008 - 35 mm, 119 min.

Director:
  TAKESHI KITANO
Script: Takeshi Kitano
Production: Office Kitano Inc.
Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Kanako Higuchi, Yurei Yanagi, Kumiko Aso, Akira Nakao


Section:
  AS-Asian Selection
Screenings:
Cine Rex - 01/05 - 22:30
Cine Rex - 07/05 - 17:30

Achilles and the Tortoise is the final installment in Takeshi Kitano's trilogy looking at his own career, his relations to the industry and cinema itself takes yet another turn in its final part. If Takeshis (2005) roamed over the subject of Kitano's split artistic personality and Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) showed him trying to reinvent himself, Achilles, via the character of a painter, ponders the Big Question of "What is art?". Divided in three acts, movie follows the efforts of a young man struggling with his aptitude for art. When Kitano himself appears onscreen (as the middle-aged character), it's already clear that the character is a skillful imitator but has no original talent, a point hammered home in a rondo of comic sketches. Even if you haven't seen the other two movies of this trilogy, this a journey nobody should miss supported by superb camera work and a striking collection of Kitano's own paintings. It seems pretty obvious that for Kitano is more important the creation itself that recognition and commercial success.

ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISEACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE