Maybe you know nothing about Takeshi Kitano. If so, you're missing out big-time. A legend in Japan as director, screenwriter and editor of brutal, brilliant crime films, notably Hana-Bi and Sonatine, he is also an actor who works under the name of Beat Takeshi, derived from his days as half of the comedy act the Two Beats. p>itano is known for throwing curves, and he throws a doozy in The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, a film that Miramax is determined to make his breakthrough hit in America. No argument here. The movie is a blast of ferocious energy and offbeat laughs, with a constant splatter of computer-generated blood and a body pileup to rival both volumes of Kill Bill. Kitano throws everything at this nineteenth-century samurai tale, including a climactic tap-dance number. The real surprise is Beat taking on the role of Zatoichi — the blind masseur with a sword hidden in his walking stick is an iconic figure in Japanese film and TV, as played by Shintaro Katsu. But Beat makes the character his own with a blond Iggy Pop dye job and wicked mischief flickering under his hooded lids. The plot, in which Zatoichi helps a sister and her cross-dressing brother — both posing as geishas — avenge their family honor is merely a convoluted excuse to let Kitano do his thing. He's a riveting spectacle. So's the movie.

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.