PRESS RELEASE
TAKESHI KITANO PRESS CONFERENCE
The concept of art, its relation to the world of economics and marketing, and the symbols found in Takeshi Kitano’s latest film Achilles and the Tortoise, were some of the topics discussed during his press conference, which took place at Warehouse C, on Wednesday, November 19th.
TIFF director, Despina Mouzaki, described Takeshi Kitano as a unique filmmaker and pointed out that: ‘He is on a course of constant evolution and re-evaluation. This is the most creative phase of his career. With this latest film of his, he ends his trilogy on the creative process and turns the idea of failure into another successful story’.
TIFF president, Georges Corraface, added: ‘Takeshi Kitano is the ultimate master; a true star who surprises us by offering something new each time, instead of selling the same product in different packaging’.
While talking about his new film, Achilles and the Tortoise, Takeshi Kitano referred to the symbolism of Zeno’s Paradox (one of Zeno’s paradoxes is called Achilles and the Tortoise) and the film’s main character’s hopeless attempt to reach success. The symbolism of Zeno’s Paradox refers not only to art, but also to human relations and the dilemmas we face in our everyday life. Achilles’ relationship to the tortoise implies the relationship between spending your time in search of something meaningless, instead of appreciating the things you can actually achieve. This applies to cinema as well. If one is only theorizing about cinema without having set foot on a film set, one will come up against similar circumstances.
Kitano admitted that he is partly responsible for the current state of Japanese television. “Things are quite bad. In contrast to the big foreign television networks, Japanese channels are not interested in creating new programs. They have been reproducing the same things for years. This makes me sad, because I share some of the responsibility. My show, Takeshi’s Castle, may have functioned as the prototype for today’s shows. I cannot complain about the situation of contemporary Japanese TV, because its problems have their roots in my show’.
