Kikujiro (1999)

Original title

菊次郎の夏

Directed by

Takeshi Kitano

Genre

comedy film, comedy drama

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 57m

Rated

12

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 603 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young boy sets out on a summer road trip to find his mother. He is accompanied by a gruff and unreliable man who teaches him about the strange and kind people they meet along the way.

light-heartedbittersweetwhimsicalgentlemelancholicquirkyslow-burntender

What happens

Kikujiro (Japanese: 菊次郎の夏, Hepburn: Kikujirō no Natsu; lit. Kikujirō's Summer) is a 1999 Japanese road drama film written, directed and co-edited by Takeshi Kitano, who also stars in the film with Yusuke Sekiguchi. Its score was composed by Joe Hisaishi. The film was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Kikujiro tells the story of a young boy searching for his mother during his summer vacation. The film is mostly divided into smaller chapters, listed as entries in the boy's summer vacation diary. Kitano's inspiration for the character (not the film) was his own father, Kikujiro Kitano, a gambler who struggled to feed his family and pay the rent. Similar to his earlier works A Scene at the Sea and Getting Any?, Kitano references the yakuza only tangentially in Kikujiro, a departure from his work in crime dramas such as Sonatine and Hana-bi. Aimed at the whole family, the film was allegedly inspired by The Wizard of Oz with the basic premise being a road trip. Kitano's familiar elements and locales are present: drawings, vignettes, the seaside, and angels. Although the plot is composed largely of sad events, the film often has a light-hearted atmosphere, achieved mostly through Kitano's character and his somewhat bizarre encounters. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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