This Saturday at 11:40pm Japan Time, a man with a pickaxe attacked at car carrying actor and film director Takeshi Kitano, best known by his stage name Beat Takeshi. The attacker even called for the 74-year-old filmmaker get out of his car. Thankfully, neither Kitano nor his driver were injured.
According to Asahi News, the attack took place at the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television after Kitano finished his news show Shin Joho Seven Days Newscaster.
The car’s windshield and the driver’s side window were both shattered.
The attacker is a man in his 40s from Chiba Prefecture, reports Mainichi News. He is quoted as saying he felt “ignored” this past June when he waited for Kitano, telling investigators, “I got down on my knees near the car and begged him to help me enter the world of show business, but he ignored me.”
The man has admitted to the attack, but the Metropolitan Police add that sometimes his comments did not make sense.
Police found a knife with a 10-centimetre blade on the man, who also admitted to carrying the weapon. He was arrested on the spot for illegal weapon possession, reports NHK. While news reports do not clarify the exact type of knife, it’s against the law in Japan to carry certain kinds, including locking blades that measure longer than 5.5 centimetres.
Kitano debuted in the 1970s as part of a comedy duo called the Two Beats. During the 1980s, Kitano became one of the biggest TV celebrities in Japan. That same decade he appeared Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and worked on the 1986 Famicom game Takeshi’s Challenge, considered one of the worst games ever made. He made his film directing debut in 1989’s Violent Cop after Kinji Fukasaku wasn’t able to helm the picture. Since then, he’s become one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed filmmakers. At home in Japan, he continues to appear in a variety of shows, from comedy to news.
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