Not one of Kitano's better films, in my opinion. It's supposed to be cute, but I found it rather annoying, not to mention way too long. Kitano plays a cantankerous middle-aged man, possibly mentally retarded in some way, who more or less kidnaps a young, friendless boy one summer and goes on a road trip with him. It starts off as pure selfishness at first - he thinks the boy is good luck when he's gambling. But soon they're friends and he wants to show the lonely kid a good time. The big problem is, Kikujiro (which is Kitano's character's name - he doesn't reveal it until the last minutes of the movie, like I'm supposed to really care) is a gigantic jerk. He's always treating people, even the little kid when's he's trying to be his friend, like garbage. Again, this is supposed to be cute and all in good fun, but I found it all nasty. Kitano is still a good director and there are a lot of good touches throughout. Jo Hisaishi wrote the score, and it makes the film a lot more pleasant than it would otherwise be.

What a bittersweet, beautiful movie! Takeshi Kitano (who writes and directs) plays a deadbeat adult who agrees to take little Masao on a cross-country summer trip to meet his estranged mother. What ensues is tragic, comedic and very poignant. The cast of characters are all rather unique and fun to watch, and the interplay between Kitano's character and the young boy is both delightful and upsetting.The film's events are divided up and introduced as events in Masao's summer diary. As he did in Hana-bi, Kitano uses his own artwork. Here his work is masquerading as the drawings done by Masao. The artwork is charming, colorful, unacademic yet unique. The drawn-out quiet pacing and environmental resonance found in Kitano's Yakuza flicks are also found here, used to illustrate the absolutely pathetic state the characters (caused by Kitano's character) find themselves in. When there is music it is charming and melodic, if simple, and never grates or becomes too saccharine. Hee hee, it's funny though -- the main theme sounds a little bit like "Chariots of Fire". And what was up with that weird dream sequence???I find Kitano's body of work to be pretty strong, and it's nice to see what a diverse entertainer and film-maker he is. This movie, Hana-bi and his recent Zatoichi incarnation are all such different movies, but they're all equally commendable. This one is pretty cool -- the first Kitano movie that usurps an adult film genre, though I would still say the message and pacing make it more appropriate for older viewers.

Kikujiro no Natsu has gathered public and critical acclaim over the years, so it gives me no pleasure as a Kitano fan to state that the film is a flabby, undisciplined and self-indulgent episode in Kitano's film career. Kitano reverses his usual protagonist traits - the stoic, silent guy gives way to a volatile motor-mouth. The trademark graphic-schlock violence takes place off-screen. The tale is well-worn; the odd couple thrown together set out on a journey that changes both of their lives. Unfortunately, there is no evolution in the relationship to an emotional climax, just a few titters along the way.The child character, Masao, is problematic. His quest is to meet his real mother, whose abandonment of him at an early age is never really explained, to Masao or the audience. At the moment where he sees his mother and her new family, it is not made clear what effect this has had on him. He cries, but does his past, no matter how traumatic, now make sense to him? Kikujiro sets out to distract the boy, and succeeds immediately. There is no progression in the boys recovery from the shock of seeing his mother for the first time - in fact, five minutes later, it is as if the whole episode had never happened. At the end, when Kikujiro says, "Let's look for your mother again," we do not know if the boy is aware of the lie or not. Strangely for this kind of movie, we do not care about the boy. Compare the child protagonists in Stand By Me, Leon, or Sixth Sense. This is not a cultural thing, as evidenced by the sympathetic portrayal of children abandoned by adults in Kore-eda's Nobody Knows or Iwai's Swallowtail Butterfly. In Kikujiro no Natsu, little Masao is more a totem pole for Kitano and his buddies to re-hash their slapstick comedy routines around.The character of Kikujiro does not make sense either. The moment when he realises the parallels between his own life and Masao's is hackneyed in the extreme, a soliloquy to off- camera. His interaction with the boy is superficial, and the interaction of Kitano with the various quirky characters they encounter does not make any sense, either comedic or plot- driven. His visit to his mother in her Retirement Home merely ices the cake too sweetly.The film seems to show more of the other Kitano, Beat the TV personality than Takeshi the filmmaker. The camping sequence with the obsequious bikers could come straight from one of his goofy game shows. The interaction with the farmer/banker at the bus stop is mildly funny if you realise the actor is Kitano's older brother, but just bizarre otherwise. Some excellent cinematography and an outstanding score from Joe Hisaishi are two compensations in this disappointing, ill-advised film.

Maybe the subject of the movie tells us a lot about Kitano himself, as a person, not only as a director, when he is reaching middle - age and starts to become really endeared by children, and by his past. While the accomplished (in 1999) director grants us with wonderful cinematography (and Acting), the after taste of the movie feels like a successive series of clown tricks and feels very loooooooooongZZZZzzz. Definitely not one of his greatest movies. TK is much better than that, and people should be referred to Hana-bi or violent cop, as starters. However, Kukijiro is of a great documentary interest to see the acting technique of Kitano. Rarely seen being so upfrontly comic.