by Chris MaGee Da Hye Kim, one of the fine folks who helps out behind the scenes here at the J-Film Pow-Wow brought this bit of news about Takeshi Kitano to my attention this morning, so now I pass it on to you all. Everyone knows that Kitano has hosted and continues to host various TV shows in Japan, but as of the end of this month one of them, "Takeshi no dare demo Picasso (Takeshi's Anybody Can be a Picasso)" will be ending it's run on TV Tokyo after a 12 year run.
"Takeshi no dare demo Picasso" debuted in TV Tokyo's 9:00 p.m. Friday night slot in April of 2007 and has featured Kitano as well as co-hosts Katsuyuki Shinohara, Koji Imada and Marina Watanabe moderating general panel show discussions as well as being judges for the show's popular "Art Battles". This segment saw up and coming young artists showcase their work with the judges declaring a weekly winner. If certain artists won for x-amount of consecutive weeks they would win a prize, in some cases a solo exhibition in a New York gallery. You can check out one such segment from back in 1998 with ero-guro manga artist Suehiro Maruo.
I find it somehow sychronistic that now that Kitano has completed his deconstructionist trilogy of film that explored his career and the role of the artist with last year's "Achills and the Tortoise" that "Takeshi no dare demo Picasso" would be ending as well. Then again, not being on the inside of the Japanese TV world it may also just be due to poor ratings. Never fear, though, Kitano Fans. TV Tokyo will be replacing "Takeshi no dare demo Picasso" with yet another Kitano-hosted panel show, this time one that will explore current cultural trends in Japan.
Again, That to Da Hye for pointing out this news report at Australia's Japanese Art Scene Monitor.
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1 comment:
I wish there was an American Kitano. The guy seems to have nothing but good ideas ("Takeshis" excepted). His variety shows are always a howl, even without subs.
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