I must admit, it took a while for me to catch on. This movie is so weird that I very nearly turned it off halfway through. For some reason I kept watching though, and it slowly began to grow on me. By the time it was over I was loving it. I finally got it, and I wanted to see it again.

Kikujiro is a very simple tale about Maseo (Yusuke Sekiguchi) a young boy who wants to travel a long distance to find his mother. His neighbor, Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) reluctantly takes the boy. 90 percent of the film consists of the duo’s adventures on the road.

It’s all consistently funny because Kikujiro is such a surprisingly compelling character. Basically, the dude is a nutcase. He doesn’t think twice about insulting or taking advantage of others in any way he can. I got to the point where anything that came out of his mouth would make me laugh.

Because Kikujiro blows all the money he’s given for the trip by gambling on bike racing and staying in a nice hotel, Kikujiro and Maseo must make most of their journey by hitchhiking. At one point, Kikujiro puts a tack in the road, hoping to pop someone’s tire and then get a ride by helping them change it.

Some of the funniest moments come as Kikujiro and Maseo inexplicably befriend a biker duo and solitary artist and all play games together – at Kikujiro’s orders. It’s all very silly, very strange, and very funny.

The primary problem with the film is the editing. Granted, I realize the long takes are done on purpose, but it’s absolutely unnecessary here. Way too often, the camera holds on the picture for a pause before cutting to the next scene. I think such slow movements can be effective is creating moods in cases such as Lost in Translation, but it never feels like it works here. Kikujiro could have cut nearly a half an hour of dead time and it would have made for a much stronger product.

Kikujiro does manage to survive its pace though. By the film’s end we come to sense some humanity in the sociopathic Kikujiro. It’s genuinely sweet, and genuinely funny.

Japanese

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