He calls himself "a cancer on the body of Japanese culture." If this is so, then the tumor has long been inoperable - it is impossible to imagine not only Japanese, but also world cinema today without Takeshi Kitano. In Russia, Kitano became the most famous Japanese director after his idol Akira Kurosawa. The book by film critic Anton Dolin is about how Kitano managed to become the author of a dozen films, a film and television star, a writer and a painter, while remaining an overaged child.