Monday 9 September 2024

Kikujiro (1999 Takeshi Kitano & scr, ed)

Beat Takeshi plays an older man who is entrusted (though why anyone would entrust him) to accompany a small boy (Yusuke Sekiguchi) wanting to visit his mother in Toyohashi. He treats this as an excuse to gamble and behave like a kid himself. When they finally arrive it appears the mother is remarried with a new child. Rather than make him face this, Takeshi explains they have the wrong address. The journey home becomes more like a Taika Waititi film, as they encounter a poet and two bikers, and they all do silly stuff together.

Some of it is really funny, like the two sabotaging a passing car, and Takeshi's attempt to swim, and the way he treats the hotel manager (Yoshiyuki Ukon).

What makes the film more than a Paper Moon is that Takeshi is so rude to everyone, like Victor Meldrew without a filter.

And the boy's dream scenes are beautiful and bizarre.

Kayoko Kishimoto again plays Takeshi's wife.

Music as before by Joe Hisaishi - here he is conducting his own theme 'Summer'. Photographed by Katsumi Yanagijima.







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