Tokyo born and bred, Kitano is the Scorsese of modern Japanese cinema;
an impartial chronicler of organised crime, with which he has
experienced a continual if peripheral relationship. (He is famous for
turning down substantial cash offers from Yakuza bosses eager to
retain his services). More philosophical than thrill-seeking, his
style alternates between zen-like tranquility and skull-shattering
violence. Towering above his cinematic peers, his skill is to
easternise what is essentially a western genre and invest the humble
gangster flick with transcendent beauty.
