The Toyota Crown is a line of full-size luxury sedans by Toyota. The range was primarily available in Japan and some other Asian countries, originally designed to serve as a taxi. Throughout the Crown's production, there has always been available a minimal-content Crown in the sedan bodystyle platform used as a taxi, and in the mid 1990s, Toyota created an offshoot of the Crown sedan to serve specifically as a taxi, called the Toyota Comfort. The Crown also serves as a police car nationally, as well as transporting government officials at all levels.

In Japan, it is only available at Toyota Store dealership retail channels. The Crown is Toyota's oldest sedan still in production. It is outranked only by the Century and the Majesta in social status. The Crown is used by many Japanese companies as the company limousine. In many markets the Crown had become very expensive and was replaced by the Cressida in some international markets when it became available for export in the early 1980s. Most models are distinguishable by a unique "Crown" badge on the front grille, in place of the normal stylized 'T', but the normal Toyota badge is usually used on the rear.

Takeshi Kitano (北野 武, Kitano Takeshi^?, born January 18, 1947) is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic Nagaharu Yodogawa once dubbed him "the true successor" to influential filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. With the exception of his works as a film director, he is known almost exclusively by the name Beat Takeshi (ビートたけし, Bīto Takeshi^?). Since April 2005, he has been a professor at the Graduate School of Visual Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Kitano owns his own talent agency and production company, Office Kitano, which launched Tokyo Filmex in 2000.

Some of Kitano's earlier films are dramas about Yakuza gangsters or the police. Described by critics as using an acting style that is highly deadpan or a camera style that approaches near-stasis, Kitano often uses long takes where little appears to be happening, or editing that cuts immediately to the aftermath of an event. Many of his films express a bleak or nihilistic philosophy, but they are also filled with a great deal of humor and affection for their characters. Kitano's films leave paradoxical impressions and can seem controversial. The Japanese public knows him primarily as a TV host and comedian, and he is well remembered for the leading role of the comedy show Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku (1981–1989)^{[citation needed]} and for the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1989). His portrayal of Zatōichi in the 2003 movie is his biggest domestic commercial success.^{[citation needed]}

Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez known as Jean Reno (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʁeno]; born July 30, 1948) is a French-Spanish actor. Working in French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther (2006), Godzilla (1998), The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the French films Les Visiteurs (1993), its sequel Les Visiteurs 2 (1998) and Léon (1994) along with the 2005 Italian film The Tiger and the Snow.

Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez in Casablanca, Morocco. His Spanish parents were natives of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), and had moved to North Africa to find work and escape the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. His father was a linotypist. His mother died when he was a teenager, and he has a younger sister named María Teresa ("Maite"). Reno was raised Catholic. He moved to France at the age of seventeen and studied acting in the Cours Simon School of Drama.