Assignment 6 - Film Review

Kikujiro no natsu (El verano de Kikujiro)

I only have one word to describe this film: “sweet “ : as all films of Takeshi Kitano.

Kikujiro is and unlikely candidate to take a naïf 8-year-old boy on a adventure to find the mother of the boy that he has never meet. They travel through contemporany Japan (country side) where they meet many weird people. The duo’s adventure takes them from races to and abandoned high, class hotel and even to a gangster carnival. The purpose is to find the mother of the child. But almost all movie is about how Kikujiro and others characters have fun with the child, how Kikujiro entertains the child. The movie is about the beautiful lost childhood.: simple and no-sense child games.

The good points of this movie are: 1) it’s is funny. A special kind of comedy: slow and smart one. 2) it’s interesting because it let us to know more about a totally different culture: Japan. 3) It’s like a trip to childhood: a resurrection of child-games, fears and hopes. And the bad ones: 1) The course of the movie is very slow 2) Because it’s is Japanese it’s doesn’t let us know about the language tricks and games 3) the ending of the movie is very-very sad.

Director: Takeshi Kitano.

Takeshi Kitano as Kikujiro, Yusuke Sekiguchi as Masao, Kayoko Kishmoto as Kikujiro’s Wife, Yuuko Daike as Masao’s mother, Kazuko Yoshiyuki as Masao’s Grandmother, and others.