Watch Kids Return For Free

Don't Believe the Hype

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Life's hard for a couple of juvenile delinquents in Japan. Takeshi Kitano's marvelous 1996 film "Kids Return" skirts around the fringes of his better known gangster pictures to look at the seeds that, once planted, might turn a boy into a gangster or, as happens here with one of our anti-heroes, a boxer. This is a very likable, small-scale film full of all the affection of friendship where even violence seems like a necessary evil in the process of growing up. Drawing superb performances from his young cast Kitano, who wrote, directed and edited the picture, keeps things light and easy with just the right degrees of sadness and humour. This may not be one of his better known films but it's just as good as anything he's done.

Takeshi Kitano: Kid's Return Director/Writer - Takeshi KitanoCast Character Ken Kaneko ... Masaru Masanobu Ando ... Shinji Leo Morimoto ... Teacher Hatsuo Yamaya ... Boxing Club Manager Michisuke Kashiwaya ... HiroshiKid's Return begins with two high-school students performing a manzai comedy act. It is the central hobby of both characters Masaru and Shinji. Shinji delivers goods to a house and meets up with his friend, Masaru, who is looking for a job. He tells Masaru he is not still taking boxing lessons. They are both aimless and want to enjoy their youth without any responsibilities. Instead they want to live their youth through each other. Masaru offers him a ride through the city. Instead of going to history class they ride their bike in the quad. On the roof they make a man out of materials with a paper drawing of the teacher's face and a flashlight as a penis and two ping pong balls as the testicles. They hang it outside and the window and wiggle the ropes controlling the fake flashlight penis making everyone snicker inside the classroom. The teacher sees it and catches the constructed man.At the café they talk of trying to be stand up comedians. When they return to school Masaru shakedowns two scared students for their money telling one to empty his socks. He seems to have gone through this before to hide it there. Shinji watches but doesn't participate. The two are unlikely friends and Masaru is the cocky extrovert and Shinji is the loyal introvert. At the café a shy student, Reiki, leaves a love letter for the waitress and as Shinji and Masaru leave Masaru takes the letter. They read the letter while biking and laugh at Reiki's love confession to Sachiko.As they get in trouble for throwing a dart to a kid's head in class the office workers and principal tell them they don't need to be good students and they don't even need to come to class. They just ask them to leave other students alone. One teacher comes in to park his car and tells them they should have been expelled a long time ago. Later he finds his car torched in a pan shot starting from the students watching on the staircase to the sad teacher's sad defeat by his car. When kids don't have money that they can take from them Masaru punches one and tells him to get a job.At the office again Shinji and Masaru are accused of setting the teacher's car on fire. They decide as the two are too stupid to fall in with the Yakuza they should become comedians. Surprisingly they take his advice and practice comedy routines. The two go to an adult video store and are told to leave. They return with painted mustaches, different accents and changed shirts with makeshift ties trying their luck again. Tired of listening to their routines the store clerk gives them two movie tickets to make them go away.Masaru tries to shakedown two students again and their hired guard punches him knocking him to the ground. Without Masaru the next day at school it is Shinji who is bullied. They go to a boxing ring to join and practice. At the adult video store other students dress in pathetic disguises with drawn ties, glasses and cheap suits to pretend to be older executives. The woman sells them the tickets and when they are gone complains how stupid they are. When they return to the restaurant Masaru sees the Yakuza boss and tells him thanks for the food from the other day. The boss tries to buy them cigarettes and alcohol but they tell him they can't have it since they must be healthy to box. Masaru decides his boxing name will be "Dynamite Punch." He tells the boxing president he wants a true fight and one kid offers to take him on only because they hate each other. Masaru fights dirty and beats the kid. He wants Shinji as a boxing partner. When they fight Shinji shows to be a better boxer consistently beating Masaru.Shinji and Masaru become estranged as Shinji excels at boxing and Masaru quits school and joins the Yakuza. At the café Sachiko listens to the persistent Reiki who flirts with her and tells about his financial job he will have soon. Shinji at the café sees Masaru walk in with the Yakuza and sees that he is now a guard. Shinji watches the boxing match of one his fellow boxers from the club. Shinji wins his first fight and becomes one of the best boxers in the gym beating everyone. Another boxer leaves the gym and tells Shinji when he becomes a boss and Shinji becomes a champion boxer they will meet again. One of the coaches tries to convince Shinji to cheat at boxing. He tells him he can put metal in his pants and later remove them when weighed to convince the club president he has lost weight so he can still drink beer.Reiki finds he cannot handle the business world as it is too cutthroat for him. He decides to be a taxi driver instead barely making enough money survive. The club president tells Shinji his friend Hayashi isn't respectable and he shouldn't drink as it affects his performance. Hayashi gives Shinji some pills to lose weight. Shinji's performance suffers and his coach yells at him for softening up after a poor jog. Shinji doesn't do well in the fight so his coaches throw in the towel to forfeit the fight and Shinji loses. Shinji and Masaru reunite and Masaru tells him nothing has changed. Shinji asks if their fate is sealed and Masaru tells him it hasn't begun.

Joe Hisaishi has proved himself again to be the greatest male Japanese anime song composer alive. The female goddess is, of course Yoko Kanno. Both geniuses have composed many many original scores for many famous animation TV series and movies.The music in Kids Return is perfect. If I am judging musical aspect of the film, it will be a 9/10.One thing puzzled me was.. didn't Shinj died in the end? We saw the wreaked white car being towed away. So how did he survive from the jealous power hungry 'No. 2'? The film didn't explain properly his close shave with death.Mao points: 8/10

T. Kitano made his best film in 1990, it was "violent Cop". It is wild and strong picture, in a sense like this movie: "Kids Return". It takes place in a school. There are several students bored of their life. Two of them decided to become unsuccessful comic actors, the rest of the group enter in the Yakuza, except one who become a strong boxer. Is like in the Oshima's film about youth, every thing had a bad end, often that end is without a moral, maybe this is the real power of Kitano's movies. The only guide is the man in him self, alone. Every man is self care, the life is the thing it is. Kitano refuse the fantastic view, like in the new Japanese cinema (for example "Kitchen" by Morita), and decide to take an overlook of the facts that show us. That is the reason why I give 9 stars to this movie.