Critics reviews

One of the fascinating things about Kikujiro, which has virtually no violence, is that it seems both more mainstream and more experimental in form than the other Kitano movies I’ve seen. It changes style so often that it all but eliminates narrative.

These lacks of interconnectedness are why Kikujiro has only gotten better with age, though its mainstream popularity has inspired many to cast it aside as cute but overrated. . . . Not only does the journal inform the film’s form, but also its narrative, filtered through the dry, aimless, and offbeat humor of a child, indulging in a silliness without ironic excess.

However hard he tries, Takeshi cannot avoid the accusation that all tough guys in the movie turn out to have soft centres. Sekiguehi handles himself well, remaining resolute and somewhat bewildered.

"Kikujiro" is the last sort of film you would expect [Kitano] to make--even though he skews the material toward his hard-boiled style and away from the obvious opportunities for sentiment... If the movie finally doesn't work as well as it should, it may be because the material isn't a good fit for [the director.]

Not only is Kikujiro sweet and funny, it is, no doubt, Kitano's experimental “art film”... The story is amusingly told in a scrapbook fashion as chapters in the kid's “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” report. And that's when the movie is at its best: when it sticks to the boy's point of view, unsullied by more complicated adult concerns.

Gentle, observational, but punchy and highly amusing... "Kikujiro" is rude to the point of eccentricity, and most of the on-the-road encounters are wacky but (because they are rooted in [Kitano's] well-written character) are never forced.

There is a tedious predictability to the [film's] proceedings and, astonishingly, the first outright boring stretches in a Kitano film... Nevertheless, 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.

Kitano has forsaken the overt violence of his cop thrillers for this variation on a road movie. The comic drama is refreshingly anti- sentimental but will break your heart anyway... Even so, Beat Takeshi may have given up the gangster, but he's not gone soft.

[Kikujiro] is a heart-tugger made totally irresistible because of the combination of Kitano’s wry, sly sense of humor and his rigorous detachment... [It] is a beautiful, warm and inviting film with a distinctive structure and composition--and a totally captivating score by Joe Hisaishi.

Just as Kikujiro mixes up and fuses the roles of child and adult, it gently but powerfully redefines our values of art and kitsch. It will hopefully net Kitano a larger audience – as well as surprising his devoted fans with its new moves.

[Kikujiro marks] a new and much gentler direction for Kitano, who appears to be mellowing with (finally). It may just be whimsy, but it's painted with a bittersweet brush.

As human drama, [Kikujiro] is not sufficiently plausible, and as comedy it is, well, not funny. Could it be that the sitcom Friends has simply invaded every nook, every cranny, every interstice of our waking and sleeping lives?