- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
90A heart-tugger made totally irresistible because of the combination of Kitano's wry, sly sense of humor and his rigorous detachment.
-
83It is off-putting at first, then refreshing, then downright touching. In short, it works.
-
80An experimental feature that keeps shooting off its ideas like an endless row of skyrockets, Kikujiro ultimately conveys this grief with such sustained intensity that it can only leave a scorched path of devastation in its aftermath.
-
75This genial, lyrical little movie seems guaranteed to broaden Kitano's fan base in the United States.
-
70In short, the film is emotional, perhaps even sentimental, but it strenuously avoids the sort of blatant manipulation that marks cheap sentimentality.
-
67Much of this movie is very funny, it has some genuinely endearing moments.
-
63If the movie finally doesn't work as well as it should, it may be because the material isn't a good fit for Kitano's hard-edged underlying style.
-
63When Kikijuro goes soft, the film falls apart, with him becoming a slapstick clown, mugging shamelessly to entertain Masao and the audience.
-
63No one has done the journey quite like Takeshi Kitano in Kikujiro
-
63The comic drama is refreshingly anti- sentimental but will break your heart anyway.
-
63Provides an arresting journey through the Japanese countryside and culture.
-
55The film has a standard trajectory, but the details are unpredictable: Kitano fluctuates between goofy pratfalls. . . and elliptical pathos.
-
50Kitano's first major comedy is loose and likable.
-
50Beautiful camerawork, some interesting scenes, but extraordinarily slow.
-
With a few quiet, moving scenes and a lovely ending, the film betrays an artist's touch, no matter how hard Kitano tries to make it look easy.
-
50It's tough to think of another child-adult pairing in a long screen tradition with so little emotional kick.
-
40Appears to be a complete about-face for Kitano, and yet it's unmistakably his, both stylistically (the film is gorgeous to look at) and thematically.
-
40Not only is Kikujiro sweet and funny, it is, no doubt, Kitano's experimental "art film."
-
40Ends up a flabby vehicle for the most banal of road-movie messages: The journey's the thing; the goal inevitably disappoints.
-
40Dreamy touches can't compensate for the film's main flaw, which is that the relationship between the two main characters never really develops.
-
38Even allowing for differences in national styles, Kikujiro sprawls and stumbles. It's a road movie that turns into its own detour.
-
30An overtly saccharine fairy tale of abandonment that is subverted by its own comic brutality. It's oddly affecting...which is to say, sad in a way that its maker might not have intended.
-
20It does... apply Kitano's black-comic style to a different setting, and individual scenes sparkle with unexpected jokes, twists, and occasional cruelties.
-
10The episodes are too convoluted to get into.
-
0The film isn't just bad; it's a barely coherent, inert mess -- a heart-tugger for voidoids.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 4 out of 5
-
Mixed: 1 out of 5
-
Negative: 0 out of 5
-
10This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
-
JamesM10