Takeshi Kitano

Battle Royale

(2000)
81
Watch Trailer
16 Dec 2000
? NOT RATED
114 min
Koushun Takami (novel), Kenta Fukasaku (screenplay)
7 wins & 8 nominations.
Forty-two students, three days, one deserted Island: welcome to Battle Royale. A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale. The students are each given a bag with a randomly selected weapon and a few rations of food and water and sent off to kill each other in a no-holds-barred (with a few minor rules) game to the death, which means that the students have three days to kill each other until one survives--or they all die. The movie focuses on a few of the students and how they cope. Some decide to play the game like the psychotic Kiriyama or the sexual Mitsuko, while others like the heroes of the movie--Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada--are trying to find a way to get off the Island without violence. However, as the numbers dwell down lower and lower on an hourly basis, is there any way for Shuya and his classmates to survive?

Brother

(2000)
47
27 Jan 2001
? R
114 min
Takeshi Kitano
1 win & 1 nomination.
A Japanese Yakuza gangster is exiled to the United States. Takeshi settles in Los Angeles where his younger, half brother lives and finds that although the turf is new, the rules are still the same as they try to take over the local drug trade.

Ghost in the Shell

(2017)
52
Watch Trailer
31 Mar 2017
? PG-13
107 min
Shirow Masamune, Jamie Moss, William Wheeler
3 wins & 6 nominations
In the near future, human organs are enhanced by the cybernetics technology developed by the powerful Hanka Robotics Corporation owned by Cutter. Dr. Ouelet is responsible for the development of the secret project 2571 of a full mechanical body to be connected to a human brain. She uses the brain of a young woman that lost her parents in a cyber attack as subject of a prototype. One year later, the woman is ranked Major and has joined Section 9, an anti-terrorist division commanded by Chief Daisuke Aramaki, working with agents Batou and Togusa. She needs to use a medicine to help the integration of her brain with the mechanical body and has no recollections of her previous life. When Section 9 hunts down the terrorist Kuze, Major learns the secrets about Hanka Robotics and the experiment she was subjected. Now she faces her ultimate enemy: Kuze, a criminal who has managed to hack into the brains of androids and control them.

Hana-Bi

(1997)
20 Mar 1998
? N/A
103 min
Takeshi Kitano
22 wins & 17 nominations.
Nishi leaves the police in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties. Spiraling into depression, he makes questionable decisions.

Johnny Mnemonic

(1995)
26 May 1995
? R
96 min
William Gibson (screenplay), William Gibson (short story)
2 wins & 3 nominations.
In 2021, the whole world is connected by the gigantic Internet, and almost a half of the population is suffering from the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS).Johnny with an inplanted memory chip in his brain was ordered to transport the over loaded information from Beijing to Newark. While Pharmakom Industries supported by yakuza tries to capture him to get the informaiton back, the Low-tech group led by J-Bone tries to break the missing code to download the cure of NAS which Johnny carries.

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

(2003)
75
06 Sep 2003
? R
116 min
Takeshi Kitano (screenplay), Kan Shimozawa (novels)
21 wins & 10 nominations.
Blind Zatoichi makes his living by gambling and giving massages. But behind his humble facade, Zatoichi is a master swordsman, gifted with lightning-fast draw and strokes of breathtaking precision. Zatoichi wanders into a town run by sinister gangs and a powerful samurai. He's destined for violent showdowns when he stumbles on two beautiful geishas avenging their parents' murder... Duels, wit and a touch of zen! Cult anti-hero Zatoichi is back in a sword-fighting adventure written, directed and starring Takeshi Kitano.

Violent Cop

(1989)
12 Aug 1989
? N/A
103 min
Hisashi Nozawa (original writer)
3 wins & 1 nomination.
A violence prone police officer discovers that his colleague is trafficking drugs.