Update: Guilala vs “Beat” Takeshi

Ryuganji.net reports that Kitano Takeshi, the iconic actor/director/media personality, will be playing a costumed kaiju role in the now-in-production Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit [aka Girara no Gyakushu: Towako Samitto Kiki Ippatsu]. In fact, he will look like this:

This is Takemajin — a giant statue that comes to life in order to take on the politically insensitive Guilala (who is attacking the G8 Summit). As the name indicates, the character is a take on the classic Daimajin statuesque kaiju-hero of the late 1960s. Takeshi’s comedic characters seem to have adopted a self-referential quality of late, continued here with that addition of “Take” to the “majin” name.

Director Kawasaki Minoru commented on Beat’s presence thus:

“In the past we’ve seen Takeshi-san do his costumed schtick as ‘Takechan-man’, ‘Red and White Mask’ and for the ‘Trans America Ultra Quiz’, and he’s a guy who has an unsurpassed fondness for Japan’s traditional art of costumery. Right now, at a time when Japan’s distinctive man-in-a-suit monster films are in danger of disappearing, he’s the only guy who can save this genre. I can say without a doubt that thanks to Takeshi-san, this’ll be a film that’ll make people say “Now this is a monster film that Japan can be proud of!”

Others have spotted some good-natured sour grapes in the role, as Takeshi’s Glory to the Film Maker was soundly beaten at the box-office by a film about a battling giant hero, Dai Nipponjin [aka Big Man Japan], made by one of Takeshi’s chief comedy rivals.