Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

This paper builds on the relationships between film and architecture with a specific focus on the cinema of Kitano ‘Beat’ Takeshi. Kitano’s work is grounded in several strands: deadpan comedic delivery from his stand-up roots; the slow and uncomfortable unspooling of diegetic time, and an intimate connection with the Asakusa ward of Tokyo. This is not the touristic gaze of western directors, but a cinema of deep familiarity and knowledge of these specific territories. As such, the use of space is banal and quotidian rather than spectacular, a lived-in Tokyo integral to his filmed narratives. A great deal of work exists in studying the relationship between film and architecture, and this paper builds on this alongside a long-term research studio on the topic at Manchester School of Architecture. Focusing on Hana-Bi (1997) and Kikujiro (1999), this paper will present graphic analysis of Kitano’s cinema, using the inscriptive practices of drawing, diagramming, notation and mapping common to architectural research in deepening an understanding of this singular auteur and his relationship to the built environment. We can learn a great deal about the dual lives of cities from their cinemas. Tokyo has a particular character and series of stories to tell about how the enormous megacity can be broken down first into its 23 wards, and then to individual districts. The cultural manifestations of cities, whilst being interpretations of the real city, bleed into our understanding of these places and exist alongside them as a parallel narrative.