Kikujiro Movie Review

I'd describe Kikujuro if I could. Written, directed by, and starring Takeshi Kitano (best known for the Asia-meets-America gangsta flop Brother), the film is a road trip of two unlikely buds: a crotchety criminal (Kitano) and a doe-eyed little boy (Yusuke Sekiguchi) in search of his mother.

Somehow this bit of whimsy is combined with a pedophile who tries to molest the kid, a guy who spends most of the movie naked (his privates covered by animated butterflies), and a solid, but Western, soundtrack. The road trip itself tends to go around in circles, as does the movie. It's too bad, because Kitano wants to say something about the inexplicable nature of friendship a la Harold and Maude, but it's drowned by a ridiculous storyline and the jarring presence of naked man-buttocks,

Aka Kikujiro no natsu.