Takeshi Kitano is one of the most famous contemporary Japanese directors. He is also a screenwriter, editor, actor, writer and painter. He began his career in the1980s, as a stand up comedian in the duo Two Beats (his artistic name was Beat Takeshi, which he later used as an actor). He began working as an actor (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, 1983.), and made his directing debut in 1989 with the film Violent Cop (Sono otoko, kyôbô ni tsuki). Originally, the director was supposed to be Kinji Fukasaku, and the leading star Takeshi Kitano, but Fukasaku gave up and Kitano took over, rewriting the script from a comedy to a drama. He became an established director by making the yakuza films Boiling Point (3-4 x jűgatsu, 1990) and Sonatine (1993), romantic drama A Scene at the Sea (Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi, 1991), comedy Getting Any? (Minnâ-yatteruka!, 1994) and drama Kids Return (Kizzu ritân, 1996). He achieved international success with the crime drama Fireworks (Hana-bi, 1997), which won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1997. He also directed Kikujirô no natsu (1999), Brother (2000), the first film he made outside of Japan, the romantic drama Dolls (2002.), the samurai film Zatôichi (2003), a surreal biography Takeshis' (2005), the comedy Glory to the Filmmaker! (Kantoku Banzai!, 2007), Achilles and the Tortoise (Akiresu to kame, 2008) and Outrage (Autoreiji, 2010).