Kids Return

• Director: Beat Takeshi Kitano
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Comedy Drama
• Movie Type: Teen Movie, Coming-of-Age
• Themes: Faltering Friendships, High School Life, Yakuza
• Release Year: 1996
• Country: JP
• Run Time: 104 minutes

Plot

Following his 1995 brush with death in the form of a motorcycle accident, actor/comedian/writer/director Takeshi Kitano spins this wistful -- if bleak -- tale about a pair of high school buddies and their inevitable slide into adulthood. Bumptious Masaru (Kenichi Kaneko) and his quiet sidekick, Shinji (Masanobu Ando), spend much of their time harassing teachers and shaking down students instead of going to school. At one point they dangle a large anatomically correct doll before the class window of a particularly maligned teacher. One day, one of their favorite marks brings along a more skilled street punk to thwart his tormentors. Their thrashing is so thorough that Masaru drags Shinji to a boxing gym. There they learn the ways of pugilism, but it turns out that only Shinji has a gift for the sport. As Shinji rises in boxing rank, Masaru drifts away from his friend and joins a yakuza gang. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Review

Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return is a fond remembrance of high school shenanigans and a cautionary tale against falling in with the wrong crowd -- a fate that's possible whether following the criminal path of the yakuza, or the lawful path of the boxer. However, a couple aspects of the film (Kitano's first after a serious motorcycle accident) prevent it from being easily received as a straightforward narrative. For starters, Kitano introduces too many characters in the opening minutes, with too little emphasis on which ones to follow. The fact that they're all males dressed in matching school uniforms makes a problem out of this otherwise commendable expository subtlety. The narrative remains somewhat fractured between these characters, making it possible to lose your footing in the film and never fully recover. Distractions and tangents aside, Kids Return basically boils down to two youths attempting to make something of themselves without involving an education. The film doesn't show any ordinary disdain for people who throw their education to the wolves; in fact, in continuing to monitor the upstanding students, Kitano's goal is to show that even they get mired in unsatisfying drudgery. Rather, Kitano examines the fragility of any particular path, judgment aside. Demonstrating an unusual sense of purpose, Masaru (Kenichi Kaneko) pursues boxing, but abandons it after one bad match. Shinji (Masanobu Ando), usually the meeker of the two, finds his own confidence in the boxing ring, only to jeopardize that by heeding the poor advice of another corner-cutter like Masaru. Kids Return is an important work, especially as evidence of Kitano's ability to "return," as it were, from great personal hardship. But it would have benefited from a larger dose of Kitano's famed sense of humor and effortless ability to poke fun at society's conventions. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Cast

Kenichi Kaneko - Masaru; Mitsuko Oka; Reo Morimoto; Ryo Ishibashi; Susumu Terajima; Masanobu Ando - Shinji; Hatsuo Yamaya

Credit

Hirohide Shibata - Art Director, Hiroshi Shimizu - First Assistant Director, Beat Takeshi Kitano - Director, Beat Takeshi Kitano - Editor, Joe Hisaishi - Composer (Music Score), Joe Hisaishi - Songwriter, Katsumi Yanagishima - Cinematographer, Yasushi Tsuge - Producer, Takio Yoshida - Producer, Masayuki Mori - Producer, Senji Horikoshi - Sound/Sound Designer, Beat Takeshi Kitano - Screenwriter

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Bad Boys; Juice; Laws of Gravity; Mean Streets; Over the Edge; Cyclo; Telling Lies In America; Twentyfourseven; Girlfight; Baby Boy; All About Lily Chou-Chou; Better Luck Tomorrow; Split Decisions

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