Takeshi Kitano's latest film, "The Head," is not so much a period piece with black jokes but rather a film that tells us that even people who are considered great are worldly in this way. The abundance of gore and the characters' complete lack of humanity and duty in the world remind one of his hit "Outrage" series.

I think that what he wanted to express in this film was to show the cheap minds of those who are considered great men, and to muddy the waters of a kind of holiness.

To begin with, Hideyoshi Hashiba, who is played by the director himself, is often portrayed as a loyal retainer of Nobunaga Oda, but in historical fact, Nobunaga was a treacherous character and a destroyer of past customs. Do we understand the feelings of his subordinates who follow such a mad boss?

I wonder if Hideyoshi, who has reached a certain position, has a strong antipathy toward him? I wonder if Hideyoshi, who became a man of status, might have strong antipathy toward him. By placing the commoner-born Hideyoshi as the main character, this film shows us how the beauty of the samurai was a beautiful lie.

I recommend this film, but you may enjoy it more if you see another film by Takeshi Kitano before seeing this one.

Kitano returns with a bit of an unusual film, for him. It might seem like a historical film at first, but it delves deeper and deeper into satire and comedy as we go. Many details are historically accurate, many are very much not, and many more is speculation or outright fiction, but these only serve to drive the point home. One of the peculiar historical inaccuracies is the age of the most famous protagonists, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. The latter one are much older than they were in reality, while Nobunaga is younger. This can be explained by the 30 year delay in making the film, and Kitano refusing to recast himself, while the young age of Nobunaga reinforces his brash nature in the film. Many, if not all, famous people of the era are present, including Kiryu, Hattori Hanzo, even Yasuke. Also many famous events (other than the main event, the Honnoji incident) are also recounted in shorter versions than we have seen in previous films dedicated wholly to them, like the battle of Nagashino (Kagemusha) and the siege of Takamatsu (The Floating Castle, which is actually based on a similar siege 8 years later). While remaining quasi accurate to history, Kitano (or rather, Beat) Takeshi takes a satirical edge to these events, most evident in the (I think wholly made up) character of Mosuke. Everyone can be killed at any time in this struggle for power, and no one life means anything. While quite successful in balancing the historical and the humorous, I think it would have been better to skew more toward the humorous side. The costumes and sets are great, as are the cast, with the usual Kitano mainstay actors, plus everyone's favorite Shark Skin Man. Some budget restraints are evident, as we don't see huge battles head on, but rather framed as to only suggest this is part of a big battle. It's still very enjoyable, but not his best.

The return of Takeshi Kitano on screen should be by now an important cinematic event. Fortunately, it is also an occasion to enjoy the latest work by Japan's most famed contemporary filmmaker. He had only made a period piece previously -that is, the wonderful "Zatoichi"- and never a war movie, hence its special interest.

Kitano's film, which some may compare to Kurosawa's great samurai yarns, reveals in almost every scene the character of his outlook on samurai legends, fraught with violence, treachery and cruelty. Festival of nihilism wherein heroism and loyalty amount to nothing and full of deranged men destroyed by their hollow ambitions. Kitano laughs at the nobility of heroic warriors interpolating lunatic behaviour in key scenes and, in the end, it's all about keeping your head on your shoulders. It is like Shogun, but for adults, of the jaded kind perhaps.