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it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Viewed on DVD. Cinematography/lighting = five (5) stars; score = five (5) stars. Director Takeshi Kitano's one-man show (he is also the star, script writer, editor, and who knows what else!) is both entertaining and dull with, unfortunately, more of the latter than the former. Kitano's slapstick/ sentimental tale involves two children: one is on summer vacation from grade school; the other is middle age on permanent vacation from being an adult. The Director often strives for humor based on silliness which mostly falls flat. Many scenes are too long due to Kitano's leisurely-paced direction and his fondness for keeping the camera running long after the action has left the frame (as well as sometimes starting the camera before the action moves into the frame). Child actor Yusuke Sekiguchi's mugging is overly done starting with the film's long opening shot. Dream/nightmare sequences meant to punch things up come across, uncomfortably, as simply silly dancing inserts. Inter-scene continuity is problematic, as Kitano the actor produces props and clothing changes out of thin air! Perhaps the most entertaining and amusing scenes involve a series of schemes on a back country road to flag down passing vehicles and snag a free ride (the Director is channeling the classic IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)) with the best hitchhiking technique being a purely Japanese one: just ask very politely for a ride! Cinematography/lighting are fine. Street scenes in a residential section of Tokyo not fire bombed during WWII are arguable the best of the exterior shots. Subtitles are okay. Score's major theme is imaginative, but its variations lack creativity and are overly redundant. Enjoyable, but don't expect too much. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

A touching Japanese homage to 'The Wizard of Oz' (in the words of Director Takeshi Kitano), this is a comedic, and sometimes disturbing tale of growing up and growing down. Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) is an immature, selfish, sullen man who takes and rarely gives. Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) is a young boy of maybe nine or ten, who has been left to live with his grandmother, and has to take things like an adult. When Masao decides to go visit his mother, his Grandmother's neighbour volunteers her boyfriend Kikujiro as escort. This is the tale of their journey, both spiritual and physical. Step out of your comfort zone and enjoy the ride! Joyous!

The last Kitano Takeshi movie for the day, Kikujiro is very much unlike the previous two movies. If anyone would think that Takeshi is only famous for, and can make only violent movies, then this one would make you do an about turn. Even the narrative style is quite different from the limited few of his movies I've been exposed to. Being PG rated (Hana-Bi was NC16), the queue of those expected to watch this film was again snaking, even though most of the (free) tickets were already snapped up.The story centers on the deep friendship which develops between a quirky, mean and uncouth middle-aged man, and a young boy. It doesn't start off rosy, as Kikujiro (played by Takeshi himself) gets assigned, against his wishes, chaperon duties to assist and ensure that the young boy Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) gets to find his mother. So begins a road trip of sorts, with the duo encountering a host of situations and characters (aren't road trips all like that?)The movie can be seen as two distinct halves, with the first half in my opinion the more superior portion of the film. It centers upon the journey, on the quest to seek out Masao's mother in another county. We get to follow our mismatched duo through various escapades through their hitchhiking adventures, with one involving racing amongst cyclists (in a betting game), which is one of my favourite moments in the story. Everything else afterwards in this half is built up from that one incident, adding much to the comedic aspects that actually, although predictably, bring on some genuine laughs.The second half is perhaps what disappoints, with its introduction of over the top characters in 2 biker gang type guys, and a farmer. Here, the sequence of events sticks out unconvincingly, even though it's possibly trying to tug at your heartstrings and bring back memories of the days of childhood, where you have adults engaging in children's games, just to keep the children entertained. The play acting with strangers take its toil as it wore on, and became a bit of a drag with repetitive childish scenes of play acting. Takeshi isn't adorable, try as he might, and some may cringe at his "act cute" moments. Somehow Yusuke Sekiguchi, who plays Masao, doesn't seem to act cute at all, and I thought it was kind of mirroring real life - imagine between a baby and an adult, who's the one playing the fool most of the time in their interactions with each other?Nonetheless, Kikujiro is still an admirable story on friendship, amongst the unlikeliest of couples, with Kikujiro cutting a father like figure to Masao's little child. Come to think of it, it's like a road trip movie between father and son, and the braving of odds to cement some credible ties by the time the end credits come rolling.

Takeshi Kitano plays Kikujiro, a combative, ne'er-do-well drifter who is badgered into taking a young boy, Masao, from Tokyo to Toyohashi to meet his mother--for the first time ever.Someone with a little money and with what passes these days for common sense could get there in maybe an hour by bullet train. Kikujiro and Masao take the, umm, scenic route.Anyone who has spent much time in Japan may be feeling "natsukashii" (nostalgia...well, not quite) well before the halfway point. What would, with a sensible adult guide, be an utterly forgettable day trip, is stretched out into a week or more, and becomes a complete summer vacation for Masao, with all that this entails in Japan--the summer festival, swimming in the ocean, the suika-wari game of blindfolded watermelon-bashing (with an amusing variation here), and so on. The "summer vacation" aspect is emphasized by the intertitles introducing each segment, which are presented as photos, complete with captions, that the boy might have taken on a real vacation.The basic structure--the adult-child road trip--has been done before, of course (and a trailer for Central Station is included on the DVD). Some of the concerted attempts by the motley collection of adults to amuse Masao in the last quarter of the movie are rather too contrived. But this is, on the whole, a good-hearted movie (...somewhat rare for Kitano) that managed to make all of us smile....really, though, the title should have been "Masao no natsu", Masao's Summer Vacation.