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INTEREST: Takeshi Kitano to Launch Online Magazine

I like this guy, even if I don't agree with him. He's a good movie director, his movies are really good, too bad he hates Hayao Miyazaki and some people believe he's a homophobe.

He mentioned that anime is still a very profitable industry and that he recognizes other people's opinions on it.

As for the homophobe thing, that was a joke (in poor taste or not, but a joke nonetheless) which was misinterpreted, taken out of context, and probably poorly translated on top of that. And if you consider the fact that his films have had various gay characters, including sometimes played by Kitano himself, I really doubt that he's homophobic.

Yes, I know what he said was supposed to be a joke, a pretty bad one, so that's why I said "some people believe he's a homophobe" I don't really care about it, it's his own opinion. He made my favorite movie ever, there's no way I'd hate the man, even if he criticizes Japan's film industry and Hayao Miyazaki, I like him. Besides, Hayao Miyazaki is the same, always criticizing absolutely everything...

Yeah, I can't say I care much either. I'm just saying that it's unlikely he's a homophobe and that people online were unfairly ganging up on him over the joke. Kitano's day job is being a comedian, and a lot of what he does is for shock value. No different really when an American comedian says something stupid. On the Internet these days, what people say can easily be misconstrued for something else entirely.

A lot of Kitano's criticisms of the Japanese film industry are valid. It's been going downhill a lot in previous years and we're long past the golden age of it. Kitano's one of the few auteurs that's still around, though I don't know if he'll ever be able to make anything as good as Hana-bi in the future.

Kitano and Miyazaki are both jaded old men, so that's where the similarities come from. Wonder what opinions he'll publish in the magazine. He's done a lot of editorials in Japan, but a lot of it isn't translated unfortunately.