AND A LOOK TO THE EAST - TAKESHI KITANO - "KIKUJIRO"

The following film does have a gangster in it, but it is better qualified to be a parody of gangster films; it definitely isn’t a “typical” gangster film. Then again, it does spring from the imagination of master director Takeshi Kitano, so it would be quite surprising if it was typical. Those of you who are into Japanese cinema will know Takeshi Kitano well, and those who follow popular entertainment will know the rather surreal TV show he runs called “Takeshi’s castle”, where contestants have to negotiate one of the most fantastic obstacle courses I have ever seen… Even if it does kinda violate my rule of disliking films that have the director as the lead. This film reminded me of the show somehow, because it is shown largely through the eyes of Masao, a rather sensitive and introverted 12 year-old. The way the film is narrated, the little surreal touches are so well combined with a quite serious theme that personally my mind boggled at the success of the combination when I thought about it later… But let me get ahead with the story first.
School is out – it is time for every student’s favorite time of the year! No more lessons, going on holiday with the family… That is all very well and good – if you actually have a family that is. Masao lives with his grandmother. His father passed away, his mother works in a city far, far away and so for Masao, summer holidays mean being left home alone by his grandmother (who also works) and watching his friends leave town one by one. Masao is a quiet and obedient boy, but he is fed up. He packs a little bag and sets out to visit his mother, armed with an old address he has found. Luckily however, on the way, he is spotted by a neighbor. The neighbor, a kind woman who understands Masao’s frustration, decides to help out. She gives her husband, the good-for-nothing gangster Kikujiro some money and sends him along with Masao to accompany him to see his mother while she “covers for them” with the grandmother… At first, things do not go according to plan. The lazy Kikujiro has his own ideas as to how the money his wife has given him should be spent and the odd couple is thrown from one adventure to another on the way, much to Masao’s mortification, but in the end they arrive… Masao, however , will not receive the warm welcome he dreamt of… Kikujiro, for all his faults, has a heart. He feels bad for Masao and about the way he treated him on the way there, so he decides that at least on the way back he can show Masao a proper good time…
I have to admit one thing, if you are not used to Japanese cinema, you may have some trouble watching this one at first. The first half of the film is made up like the most surreal road-trip you could possibly imagine. It is funny, very funny indeed, but the type of comedy employed is very much “Japanese” comedy. Kikujiro, I felt is very much comparable to Leon, the character from the epic Luc Besson film; both are gangsters and very much children in adult’s bodies… And Kikujiro’s laziness and lack of logic (considering he is in fact a Yakuza judging from his tattoos) makes for a hilarious film – for those who are used to that kind of humor. But then, the second half of the film begins… And the whole atmosphere of the film changes the very moment Masao meets his mother. I will not give details of why it goes badly, so as not to spoil the surprise, but we are brought down to earth with a firm thud along with Kikujiro. He has been acting rather selfishly from the start and feels distinctly bad about the way the whole trip has gone for the little boy. He gathers around him a couple of allies and puts all his strength into making sure the little boy has fun, and since the imagination of Takeshi Kitano comes into play, these make for, if it were at all possible, even more surreal and absurd adventures and tableaus. You might start off thinking it is a touch lacking in substance for your taste – I did – but it is so well balanced-out with the second half, where a more sober air combined with Kikujiro’s surreal efforts (comparable to Roberto Begnini’s equally surreal Life Is Beautiful in a sense) make for a film about an extremely unlikely friendship that knows neither age nor background but exists for its own sake, and that will warm you right down to the cockles of your heart…