Synopsis:

At the close of the school year, a young boy by the name of Masao, leaves Tokyo in search of a mother he's never met. Kikujiro is a middle aged petty crook and con man who is enlisted to take Masao on his long journey to the seaside community where his mother lives. Along the way, Kikujiro gambles away their money and finds himself destitute with Masao, a long way from home. Much like Blanche Dubois in "Streetcar named Desire", Masao and Kikujiro are dependant upon the kindness of strangers in their quest for Masao's mother. Sad and often funny, Kikujiro is a beautiful film that ultimately conveys one of the greatest human attributes…compassion.

Audio/Video:

The audio for Kikujiro is presented in Dolby 5.1 in the film's original Japanese language. The film is greatly dialogue driven and keeps most of the audio in the fronts and center. The sub and surrounds are used when the film's recurrent musical theme is employed. The dialogue is clear and clean and easily understood. The video is a widescreen presentation that is not as starkly contrasting as I expected it to be. The images are for the most part soft but there are no signs of pixellation or other transfer errors to mention. Other than the softness of the picture, the colors are true and the imagery is definitely watchable!

Extras:

The extras are two trailers for films starring Takeshi Kitano namely, Johhny Mnemonic and Central Station. The trailers are in pretty poor shape and show their ages rather poorly. Central Station is actually in much better shape than Mnemonic but, both are poor. Additionally, a bio is enclosed for Kitano, chronicling his film career as well as personal data IE…date and place of birth.

Overall:

This is a heart tugger if ever there was one! Takashi lends so much humor to the film that he offsets the sorrow and pain inherent in a film of this type. The storyline is wonderfully produced. It can get a little slow about the middle of the film but it picks up and engages you more than enough to make it to the finish line! Simply put…beautiful story, beautifully executed. Three hanky minimum. Highly recommended!