Kikujiro ~ Kikujiro's Summer

Reviewed by Made in DNA (made_in_dna@hotmail.com)

Publisher: Kikujiro ~ Kikujiro's Summer Available at: J-List Cost: $50 US Video quality: Beautiful (full wide screen) "H" factor: N/A Sex: N/A Overview: Excellent story of life by Takeshi Kitano

This is the story of Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi), an elementary school student living with his Grandmother in Tokyo. As the summer vacation approaches, he finds himself with nothing to do. His father "died in car accident", and his mother is "far away working" in the city of Toyohashi. However when he finds a photo and an address stashed in his grandmother's dresser, he sets out, determined to find and meet her.

Along the way, he happens upon Kikujiro (Beat Takeshi Kitano), a forceful bungling menace to himself and everyone around him, and a schemer with a mouth and manners worse than Winston Churchill. Yet a man of his word with a heart of gold, who just takes his time to do things in a roundabout way.

What would normally be a two hour trip by Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Nagoya, turns into a virtual expedition as the pair quickly use up the initial 50,000 (USD $500 equivlant) on broads, booze and bicycle racing. Hitchhiking their way south, they encounter everyone from truck drivers and a couple on a date, to a carefree novelist and poet in a van and a pair of bikers.

The ensuing adventures become a summer to remember for one little boy in need of parental attention. A summer of exploration, travel and friendship. Brilliant to its very core, this film, despite its surface comedy leanings, will deliver surprise after surprise, as the two main characters build their relationship.

Kitano, who wrote, directed, edited, and starred in this wonder of a film, goes way back to his roots of manzai comedy (a genre of rapid fire dialogue comedy) to deliver slapstick and zing worthy of Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, et al. But doesn't stop there, playing with the viewer's heartstrings all the way, jerking the audience from great bellows of laughter to tissue-worthy hard tears.

Yusuke Sekiguchi, the child actor who plays opposite Takeshi Kitano, is the perfect tsukomi (straight man) to Kitano's boke (funny man), taking in his surroundings and situations with dead-pan eyes and not a hint of smile on his lips so often that one wonders if they didn't place a cardboard cutout in front of the camera. While that may sound like a knock, it's not. It can't be an easy task to play opposite a seemingly brash and funny man such as Kitano without cracking a smile once in a while. Sekiguchi handled Kitano and his schnanigans with professionalism uncommon for someone his age. He is a born actor.

A charming film from the master of bullets and hardboiled who proves he can master the heart as well.

Filmed in wide-screen, 16:9 format. Optional English subtitles. Included on the disc is a theaterical trailer and a making of extra. 137 minutes.