Kids Return

Kids Return (1996) is one of Takeshi Kitano’s more conventional films. It seems he has a habit of challenging the expectorations of his critics and fans. This film follows the comedic miscue of Getting Any? It is basically the story of two outsiders who deicide to look for a life outside the meritocracy of Japanese society much the same way Kitano looked for success outside the mainstream model of school followed by endless hours working in a company. One of the characters is a natural boxer, but after fleeting success fall by the wayside after being led astray by a negative influence. His best friend has a similar trajectory with the local yakuza. It also portrays the career trajectories of classmates from the same high school. One of the classmates takes a salary man job and works overtime as a cab driver and it ends in tragedy. Other classmates find success as a manzai team. There are several cyclic images that suggest a circular pattern of success followed by failure. This is Kitano’s 6^th film and it seems that he likes to keep his public guessing about what kind of film he will make next. I see similarities with Steven Soderbergh in that they both have an interest in experimental film and a variety of genres.