SCFZ poll: Takeshi Kitano

[flip]

Polling the films of director Takeshi Kitano

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Kitano films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: brian d, greennui, ofrene, kanafani, bure, greg x, oscarwerner, silga, dt, umbugbene, roscoe, rischka, wba, thoxans, mesnalty, caracortada, joks, zulawski, nrh

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

we'll take a break from nominations for this poll - john ryan won our cannes betting competition, so next tuesday's poll will be his nomination. we still need to find one more viewer for his first choice, kim ki-duk. dt, umbugbene and john all have at least 8+, so if anyone else has seen 8+ kim ki-duk films, please post here, and he'll be our next poll. if we haven't found anyone else with 8+ kim ki-duk films seen, i'll go with john's second choice, george cukor.

[flip]

seen three takeshi but don't remember one of them well enough to even have rated it on letterboxd. i guess i'll go with:

sonatine

though i could just as easily have picked fireworks

[ofrene]

seen 5

1. A Scene at the Sea

second place would go to Sonatine or Hana-bi, but can't decide......

[greennui]

12.

Fireworks
Kids Return
Boiling Point
Violent Cop
Kikujiro

[thoxans]

fireworks
sonatine

*seen five (def wanna watch more; i'll have to go with the boring choices for now, but mostly cuz i luvluvluv fireworks)

**seen one cukor (dinner at eight), and liked it well enough; seen one kim (spring, blah, blah, blah... and blah), and didn't like it at all

[kanafani]

A Scene at the Sea
Fireworks
Kikujiro
sonatine

[oscarwerner]

Seen 10.
1. Fireworks (Hana-Bi) (1997)
2. Sonatine (1993)
3. Kikujiro (1999)
4. Violent Cop (1989)
5. Kids Return (1996)

[Joks Trois]

Seen 16.

1.Fireworks
2.Sonatine
3.Kikujiro
4.Violent Cop
5.Dolls


Achilles and The Tortoise is probably his best since Dolls.

[Caracortada]

No fan, but I've seen four.

1. Dolls
2. Fireworks

[nrh]

kids return
scene at sea
boiling point
takeshis'
kikujiro

seen everything except the 2 recent outrage sequels.

kitano is such an interesting case point - the west came to his work in such an odd, confused way (always remember ebert describing him as a "japanese clint eastwood" in his review of oshima's gohatto!), and then seemed to suddenly lose interest the minute he stopped pandering to genre desires. which means they missed achilles, probably his most accessible (and moving) film of all...

[wba]

hi, wba here

Love Kitano!!!

01. Violent Cop (1989)
02. Sonatine (1993)
03. Boiling Point (1991)
04. Fireworks (1997)
05. Dolls (2002)

Kitano seen: 10

[Javier]

Seen 13

1. Kids Return
2. Violent Cop
3. A Scene at the Sea
4. Brother
5. Getting Any?

[rischka]

i'll cast my vote for kids return, a lovely film i watched on nrh recommendation

otherwise my kitanos are too long ago to judge fairly

wba are you 'gab' permanently? that will take some getting used to

[Curtis, baby]

He's not! I'll fix it tonight

[wba]

wba are you 'gab' permanently? that will take some getting used to

Thank god, no! bure fixed it.

PS: Not a fan of Kids Return, but I've seen it ages ago, so should probably rewatch.

[rischka]

YAY THE RETURN OF WBA

[...]

I've only gotten around to watching seven Kitanos so far, pretty much the same ones most have seen, but I've liked them all, the later ones more than the earlier ones. I don't really have much preference among those I liked best.

Zatoichi
Sonatine
Hana-bi/Fireworks

[john ryan]

Seen 6

1. Zatoichi
2. Sonatine
3. Kikujiro

[flip]

every film kitano made before 2006 got at least one vote, none of his six films since 2006 got a single vote:

results

1. Fireworks (1997) -- 24 pts
2. Sonatine (1993) -- 19 pts
3. Kids Return (1996) -- 16 pts
4. Violent Cop (1989) -- 15 pts
5. A Scene at the Sea (1991) -- 12 pts
6. Kikujiro (1999) -- 11 pts
7. Boiling Point (1990) -- 9 pts
8. Zatoichi (2003) -- 6 pts
9. Dolls (2002) -- 4 pts
10. Takeshis' (2005) -- 2 pts
10. Brother (2000) -- 2 pts
12. Getting Any? (1994) -- 1 pt

[nrh]

man...part of my hope for this poll was that someone at least would check out achilles. did a bad job then on my part

[flip]

up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-135/