Out of Competition: Broken Rage by Takeshi “Beat” Kitano

There was a time when Takeshi’  Beat’ Kitano was at home at the Venice Film Festival, even winning it with the magnificent Hana-bi (1997). Still, later Brother (2000), the sumptuous Dolls (2002), Zatoichi (2003), Takeshis (2005), Glory to the Filmmaker (2007), Achilles and the Turtle (2008), Beyond Outrage (2012), Outrage Coda (2015) would also arrive in the Lagoon. And we come today with this Broken Rage, a cinematic experiment, one of many actually in the career of the Japanese actor and director. It is a sixty-one-minute film composed of two short films telling the same story. They are perfectly identical, except for one thing: the first is a brutal detective story, and the second is a comedy. It is an example of how writing can change the meaning of images and demonstrates the absolute power of genres within the language of cinema. The protagonist of Broken Rage is a hitman who moves through the underworld. His life is at risk: on the one hand, Yakuza hunts him down; on the other, the police are eager to put handcuffs on him. It’s a dark, tense, violent story, but also very funny, full of gags, almost slapstick stuff. In the same moments, with the same shots. Cinema magic, as they say. Kitano said he was ‘very honoured to have been invited to the 81. Venice International Film Festival for the world premiere of Broken Rage. It is a film that dares a new style. If everyone liked it, I would be thrilled. Beat Takeshi, if you did not exist, you would have to be invented.