Kikujiro and Kitano Movies Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Kikujiro and Kitano Movies - Movie Review Example Indeed, as a follow up to his most notable work "Hana-bi," or "Fireworks," this film seems to have gone unnoticed for the most part because of its veering toward the usual Disney-like story of a crabby old man hitting the road with a dejected kid, but then, we're talking about Kitano. He was able to make the movie look fresh, original, and even surprising. He was also able to show that his works shouldn't be stereotyped at all to the yakuza films he made, which are filled with "juxtapositions of life and death, ugly violence and beautiful serenity - and usually end bleakly with suicide." The movie may be looked into as somewhat having two unique parts, with the first part the more gilt-edged portion. The first half focuses on the journey for the most part. The audience follow the seemingly incompatible pair through various risky adventures such as when they hitchhiked and raced among cyclists. Everything else that happen afterwards has its foundation on the search for Masao's estranged mother in another part of Japan and surprisingly brings on laughs. The second part isn't that quite spectacular though. ... The result is that some scenes became a drag to some because of repetitive scenes of adults acting like children such as when Kikujiro forms an assorted crew of misfits to play with Masao and have them dress up as aliens, Indians, marine life and even watermelons. Nevertheless, with Kitano's concept of building a friendship between the most unlikely of people, it really makes for an admirable and interesting story. It is also interesting to note that Masao's scrapbook seems to provide the structure for the movie giving each chapter a fair description. Each chapter offers a well-defined character that is, in different turns, hilarious, playful, surreal, disturbing, and heartbreaking. For one, Kitano is bold enough to use a child molester as an unlikely source of black humor and subject of any child's nightmare. The variations in tone between the chapters help in orchestrating unexpected tonal shifts and works to add to the context of the story. The theme: Alienation and inclusion Kitano was also able to look into the theme of both alienation and inclusion in his very own Japanese society. In fact, the two main characters, and even most of those who help the duo along their journey, can all be considered as unwanted by the society as they were not really a part of any conventional family or group structure. The characters, on the other hand, who live a more unquestioned lifestyles are frequently conflicting with the movie's protagonists. At the onset of the story, Kikujiro reacts to their alienation with anger while the nine-year old Masao with sadness. But along their expedition, they begin to discover similarities between themselves and the circumstances in Toyohashi become a turning point for the protagonists to