Vivekmaru45
This film sent me down memory lane to when I was a little boy with my little school-bag full of books and some snacks for break-time/recess-time.But that was a long long time ago. I have grown since then, but my heart I have kept just as innocent as when I was little. This film teaches you a lot. It shows two characters at different stages of life. Kikujiro Takeda's life is over, he hasn't accomplished much he spends most of the time at the tracks and at bars and rarely at home. He is disgusted with the hand that life has dealt him. It can be safe to assume that in the film, Kikujiro has no children with his wife.His wife, however is a ray of sunshine. She is a real sociable person and a quick talker as generally most Japanese women are.Then we have a lonely young boy Masao of an undisclosed age maybe six or seven years old. Masao is living with his old grandmother. He has been abandoned by his mother, but hopes one day of reuniting.One day receives a package, and in looking for a seal finds a photo of his long lost mother. He finds her address in Toyohashi, several hundred miles to the west. Leaving home to see his mother, he meets his grandmother's neighbors, Kikujiro and his wife. Kikujiro's wife forces Kikujiro to accompany Masao on a journey to see his mother, telling Masao's grandmother that they are going to the beach.Their journey begins. Watch the film and see what happens next. I guarantee you this film will change your outlook of life, and you will not regret the time you have spent on it.
p.newhouse@talk21.com
A touching Japanese homage to 'The Wizard of Oz' (in the words of Director Takeshi Kitano), this is a comedic, and sometimes disturbing tale of growing up and growing down. Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) is an immature, selfish, sullen man who takes and rarely gives. Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) is a young boy of maybe nine or ten, who has been left to live with his grandmother, and has to take things like an adult. When Masao decides to go visit his mother, his Grandmother's neighbour volunteers her boyfriend Kikujiro as escort. This is the tale of their journey, both spiritual and physical. Step out of your comfort zone and enjoy the ride! Joyous!
paul2001sw-1
In Takeshi Takeno's film 'Kukijiro', a young boy is taken by a strange old man he hardly knows on a journey across Japan to find the mother he has never met. What follows is much essentially random oddness, as the two of them fall in with a variety of other peculiar characters, some benign and others less so. The film is shot against an unusually drawn countryside, littered with the debris of human activity; and accompanied by a warm, though wholly Western soundtrack. . But the story's mysteries remain unexplained; and I struggled to find much more going on than whimsy; I preferred the director's more vigorous, although also somewhat eccentric, 'Zatoichi'.
nizsu
I have heard a lot of people said that this film was not recognized as much as his other films. What a shame! When I saw the tittle of the film, I was surprised. The tittle is Kitano's father name.In Kitano's biography, it is said that "Kitano's father was an alcoholic and would spend most of the money he earned on alcohol, and when he had been drinking, he would become violent and beat up both his wife and his kids. Eventually, Kikujiro left his family".I know Kitano Takeshi made this film because he has been tired of violence/gangsters/life&death in his previous film, but what made him writing a story about his father-a man who abandoned his family when Kitano was young. If you read Kitano Takeshi's biography, you should see his childhood memory in Masao. Kikujiro ( in the film) is a corrupted person. But also in the film, Masao eventually respects and loves to play with that childish man who keeps smoking and shouting at people. Does Kitano himself desire a father too much, so he is willing to accept his father's bad habits as long as his father is still at his side.It is not really a film I'd say, I feel like I am seeing the characters in real life. From the start, Masao has drawn Kikujiro in his diary. The ending is also the beginning. Kitano didn't make a happy ending nor a sad ending. Our 3 hours is just to see the beginning of a father-and-son relationship which would grows by the time. Remember, Masao just knew Kikujiro's name in the end of the film, and Kikujiro said: "Let's do it again some time". The cycle of life in "Kikujiro" go on forever. The feeling is too real. I have forgot that I were watching a movie. There is no simple words that can describe this movie completely, u have to watch it by yourself
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