AllMovie

In this film by Japanese television comic-turned-cinema auteur Takeshi Kitano, a soft-spoken convenience store cashier named Takeshi Kitano finds his fate inexplicably intertwined with that of ubiquitous Japanese showbiz star Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. At times running parallel and at other times unexpectedly intersecting, the radically different lives of the shy everyman Kitano and superstar celebrity Kitano slowly begin to gel into a surreal fantasy of fame as the convenience store clerk and aspiring actor loses himself to fantasies of becoming his famous look-alike. When the unstable fan purchases a variety of handguns under the guise of preparing for an upcoming role, his obsession with the television and film star threatens to erupt into violence.