Beat Takeshi Hates Games, Computers, Email (What About Twitter?)

In 1986, Japanese comedian and actor Beat Takeshi designed a video game. A very hard video game.

Dubbed Takeshi’s Challenge and released by Taito, the game defines video game masochism. In Takeshi’s Challenge, players must sing karaoke into the Famicom controller mic for an hour. After they do that successfully, every character in the bar tries to kick the crap out of your character! (That’s if you do it successfully!) And when players finally reach Beat, they need to hit him 20,000 times to defeat him.

Takeshi made the game because he apparently hates video games. Japanese gamers, however, dug his brand of video game masochism and snapped up 800,000 copies of the game. He’s since gone on to become one of the giants of Japanese entertainment and has achieved worldwide fame for acting and directing motion pictures like Sonatine and Hana-Bi.

A French book Kitano par Kitano, which is getting a Japanese version, features a collection of interviews with Takeshi. “I hate computers,” he says in Kitano par Kitano. “I also hate email. I have a mobile phone in my car, but I’ve never answered it.”

“And Twitter, it’s OK for horsing around and playing, but I don’t get the stupidity of using it as a new source,” Takeshi says. “News, you can get that walking down the street. Even if you watch TV as little as possible, I still think you can get correct info.”

According to Takeshi, people today are constantly searching for information. Because of this, they think the information they find is a big deal – even though, he says, it isn’t really. Takeshi notes that it really depends on who is releasing the information. So advertising companies can create and disseminate information. “Everyone is like cattle,” Takeshi says, “being moved from pen to pen.”

Takeshi also goes on to criticise young Japanese women for putting on make-up on the train, comparing it to “a drunkard taking a piss on the street”. Fellow entertainment giant, Hayao Miyazaki recently lambasted using the “game machine-type” iPad as “masturbation”, and derided the use of mobile phones on trains. He then told kids to get off his lawn and called the cops.

Which brings me to: Beat Takeshi and Hayao Miyazaki take public transportation?

【北野武　ニッポンの問題点を語る】（上）電車の中の化粧なんて、酔っぱらいの立ち小便と同じ [MSN産経ニュース][Pic]