Achilles And The Tortoise (Takeshi Kitano)

Achilles and the Tortoise is Kitano's third trilogy of his self reflection trilogy. While the first film was about his life as a filmmaker, and the second about a Kitano without inspiration for a new film. This third film is about art and the artist. The first two films haven't been as good as Kitano's earlier work. So how does Achilles and the Tortoise do, compared to films like Hanabi, Dolls and Sonachine.

The film can be divided into three parts. In the first part a young boy grows up and wants to become a painter. Because his father is a famous painter he can do anything he wants. Then one day his father dies and the boy has to live with his uncle who is not a big fan of painting. He struggles and learns to express himself. 

Years later when the boy grows up he goes to an art gallery. The owner says his work is too old fashioned and says he should go to art school and study modern painting. Which he does. But after studying he can only imitate work, instead of expressing himself. Something that most artists struggle with. 

When the painter reaches middle age, he starts experimenting with all kinds of radical approaches. His wife helps him with his work, but still the art gallery won't accept his work. During this period the painter goes bankrupt and after an accident his wife will leave him, while his daughter already left him. But art should always be number 1, right?

Kitano researches the struggles an artist has to deal with when he's creating. There is references to most 20th century modern painters. The paintings during the film are all made by Kitano, and he painted a lot for this film. As usual with Kitano there's a lot of humour and satire. At one point in the film, when the painter is studying, he and his friends are studying new ways of painting. One of them rides with a bicycle with cans of paint on his head against a big canvas. With the different colours, the painting becomes like an action painting work. But the big question remains; is Kitano back at his old level?

His humour is as good as always, and the film is much stronger than the other two films of the trilogy, especially in levels of character depth. Kitano is looking for a good balance between drama and humour, without falling back into what he did before. He's not there yet, but he's on to something new. His next film could be another masterpiece.

**** (out of 5)