[Three Things About...] Achilles and the Tortoise
1) The central theme of this movie is lack of talent and inspiration, and it’s very close to Kitano’s last two movies, Takeshis and Glory to the Filmmaker!. It’s as if after two movies where he expressed his feelings, he decided to tell a story around the same theme. The result is a charming movie with a lot of bittersweet laughs squeezed in between some very acute observations on the wicked ways the art world works. It may lack the power of some of its best movie, but Kitano’s voice is always very entertaining and surprisingly earnest.
2) The art world works in weird and sometimes completely nonsensical ways, and Kitano’s approach to it is refreshing and feels completely true. It’s the story of a world that continually needs to validate itself in order to exist, and the parable told by this movie is a perfect metaphor of the craziness of the whole idea of “high art” versus “pop art”. It’s also a tale about love of art bordering on obsession, and the body count at the end of the movie, kind of close to First Blood‘s, is telling on how much Kitano seems to think this obsession can be dangerous.
3) This movie closes a trilogy were Kitano seems to unleash his inner comedian in a way that will very much please fans of his Takeshi’s Castle show or the amazing anime/manga series Excel Saga. This movie’s humor is tipically Japanese, and it’s an acquired taste for anyone outside the country. It’s very fun and understandable for young Italians, because we grew up on a steady diet of animes and mangas; and for some reason seems to resonate a lot with Czech audiences, who also love Monthy Python.
