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