Takeshi Kitano tkaes on ghostly role for TV movie "Kikoku"

by Chris MaGee

Takeshi Kitano is not the kind of guy to rest on his laurels. Even though his latest directorial effort "Outrage" garnered mixed reviews at the Cannes Film Festival last month Beat just keeps on keepin' on. Word came this week via Twitch and Tokyograph that Kitano will be making one of his many appearances on Japanese television, not on a game show or panel discussion show though. The 61-year-old director, actor, comedian (painter, author, etc, etc.) will be co-starring with actor Shun Oguri and actress Maki Horikita in a Tokyo Broadcasting Systems TV movie titled "Kikoku".

Based on the 1955 fantasy novel "Saipan Kara Kita Ressha" by author Hiroshi Muneta the film will have Kitano starring as a ghost of a WW2 soldier who along with his other spectral comrades ride a train into presnt day Tokyo. Oguri will star as another ghost soldier who returns from beyond the grave to visit his now elderly girlfriend.

Veteran screenwriter So Kuramoto will be penning "Kikoku" and the folks at TBS are planning to air it this August 14th to coincide with the 65th anniversary of Japan's surrender that ended WW2.