Film: Kids Return
"Kids Return"
Japan: キッズリターン
Director: "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (1996)
Original Language: Japanese
Cast:
Ken Kaneko, Masanobu Ando, Leo Morimoto, Hatsuo Yamatani, Michisuke Kashiwaya, Yuuko Daike, Mitsuko Oka, Ryo Ishibashi, Susumu Terajima, Moro Morooka, Atsuki Ueda, Koichi Shigehisa
I’ve watched a later work of Kitano before this (i hope to give my thoughts about those other films). It seems that Kitano’s style throughout his films is evident especially on scoring the music. Its hard to find the purpose, but for me, it can be annoying as well. one scene seemed to be slow and the music on the background seems to ask us to wait for what’s gonna happen. its the same with another film that i watched.
Other than that, i love the story. Its all about two pals (Masaru & Shinji both played respectively by Kaneko and Ando) who recalls their younger years as delinquents in school. They grew up together and suddenly went to separate ways: Shinji becoming very devoted to boxing and Masaru becoming a member of Yakuza. Its a coming of age as these characters do change as different events happen in their lives. They sure looked like they were mature in the present time. One thing that drew my attention is the significance of the school uniform to other kinds of clothes. school uniform symbolizes the life being controlled by the strict laws of the school system. wearing ordinary clothes makes a feeling of vulnerability either life will be worse or better. Boxing gloves and coat and tie both represent where the two decided to go for in their lives but a very great deal of acceptance has to be considered because it seems that school was lost once Masaru and Shinji both went in to the Yakuza and on the ring respectively.
i absolutely feel a lot of frustration in some scenes of the film. I love seeing scenes where characters develop. but i rarely seen a comic relief in this film. not even the stand-up comedians made me laugh. the idea about the comedians in the film basically was that they are not supposed to be funny at all and they were desperate to get into such jobs.
i wanted to talk more, but all in all, it is a depressing yet indeed interesting film to watch.
–jic 005009MMV1953H
