Meet the Beat

Zatoichi is Takeshi Kitano's first foray into directing a samurai film, but he's long been familiar with deadly weapons. A look at Kitano's best—and bloodiest—movies:

Violent Cop (1989): Dirty Harry does Tokyo in Kitano's directorial debut, an exercise in anger mismanagement that features Kitano as an avenging officer fighting corruption inside the police force

Sonatine (1993): Kitano gets existential in his portrayal of a burned-out yakuza boss shipped off to Okinawa. Despite his ennui, Kitano rouses himself to massacre everyone in sight

Fireworks (1998): Winner of the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, this masterpiece shows Kitano plumbing the extremes of tenderness and violence as a stressed cop caring for his dying wife

Brother (2001): Kitano goes to America and teaches Los Angeles gangstas a thing or two about the art of killing—mostly by killing all of them. A misfire

Dolls (2002): In a departure, Kitano presents three tales of undying love inspired by Bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theater. A strange lack of guns, but there's emotional violence aplenty

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HILLARY CLINTON, saying in an interview on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that she'd be open to meeting with Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor, whose book on the 2008 presidential campaign comes out this week

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