Word: katsu
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...moviemaking life: stepping into the shoes of an actor who is every inch the celluloid icon that Kitano is. Imagine replacing Sean Connery if he'd been in every Bond film, and you have some idea of what faces Kitano in taking on the mantle of the late Shintaro Katsu, the actor who played Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, from 1962 to 1989. To succeed, Kitano must make audiences forget Katsu?and Beat Takeshi. "Zatoichi and Katsu are mentioned in the same breath," says Kitano. "So if another actor tried to do it, then there is a lot of incompatibility...
...After a visit with Kitano to Katsu's grave, Saito popped her question: Would Kitano be interested in doing a new Zatoichi film? Like a victim in one of his films, the cinematic tough guy never saw it coming. "He was really surprised," says Saito. "He even became speechless." At first, Kitano turned her down, thinking the only person who could ever play Zatoichi was gone. That didn't matter to Saito. "Takeshi-san said, 'Even if I say no, you're just going to keep asking me, aren't you?'" she recalls. "It's not like I was asking...
...Saito's bond to Shintaro Katsu goes back a long way, equal parts cents and sentiment. Those who knew him say Katsu's ability as an actor was matched only by his oversized generosity offscreen?and his terrible business sense. "He was known as someone who liked to play around," says Yukichi Shinada, a veteran Tokyo film critic. "Say he went to a club, he would always buy really expensive cognac and then buy drinks for other people." Saito's son, Tsunehisa Saito, who worked with Katsu for more than 20 years, says, "He was a really caring, very generous...
...long after Katsu's death, Saito decided that a new Zatoichi film had to be made, both to honor the actor and because she had a claim on the Zatoichi copyright. "Everyone knows I did a lot for Shintaro Katsu," she says now. "I deserve the right to do anything." She already had someone in mind, the only actor and director she believed had the toughness to play Zatoichi and the clout to turn the blind swordsman into an international name: Takeshi Kitano...
...silent films, but was unable to view one. When Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and opened in New York to critical acclaim, Anderson hoped it would spur interest in its silent predecessors. It did. Cineasts found some films in katsu kichi, private salons showing silent films held in private collections. The groups were organized by Shunsui Matsuda, a benshi who died in 1987. The clubs re-created the original conditions of silent screenings. Last fall, the Pordenone festival invited Midori Sawato, the last in the line of professional benshi...