Takeshi Kitano's notoriety has earned him a place in the upper echelons of Japan's TV nobility. Since his television debut in 1975 as part of the comedy duo, Beat Takeshi, Kitano has proved to be a multifaceted talent, acting in Nagisha Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and Many Happy Returns, directing Violent Cop (1989), Scene at the Sea (1991) and Sonatine (1993), in addition to writing bestsellers, all with outstanding success.
His latest directorial offering, Kids Return, concerns two teenagers, Masaru and Shinji - played by Ken Kaneko and Masanobu Ando - who suffer from mischievous juvenile ennui, and predictably spend their time having overlong, comic dialogues and dabbling in petty crime. Kitano explores how success or failure during these formative years plays a disproportionally large part in their adult lives when Shinji outshines his friend in their mutual fascination for boxing: Shinji is offered the chance to turn professional, while Masaru, having been denied success in any legal pursuit, strives to reach the pinnacle of crime's career structure — to become Yakuza, a professional gangster.
Kitano is hoping Kids Return will ride the wave of success, particularly in France, generated by his last film Sonatine. According to sales company Celluloid Dreams' head of sales, Nicole Lord, Kitano's formula of "parody, rather than real violence" hits the right note among young audiences, but to an extent, Kitano's message is more enigmatic and sophisticated. Hironi Monro, assistant producer at Office Kitano Inc., explains that Kitano's films are "very serious social comments…with a flavour of comedy, lying mainly in the script itself".
The man himself reserves comment about his films, expecting his audiences to work out the message for themselves.
Made entirely on location in Tokyo, and hence the unusually small budget of US$2.5 million -the costs mounted on his previous films, which were set in Okinawa - Monro expects Kids Return to eclipse the success of Sonatine and Scene at the Sea at its European premiere in Cannes. His confidence, given the rare success of Japanese artists in overseas markets, is testimony to Kitano's growing reputation well beyond the confines of his native country.
Geoff Smith
Prod Co: Office Kitano
Inc. Prod: Masayuki Mori, Yasushi Tsuge, Takio Yoshida
Dir/Scr: Takeshi Kitano
Ph: Katsumi Yanagisawa, JSC
Art dir: Norihiro Isoda
Prod des: Shuji Yamashita
Mus: Joe Hisaishi
Ed: Yoshinori Ota, Takeshi Kitano
Cast: Ken Kaneko, Masanobu Ando, Reo Morimoto
Running time: 107mins
International sales: Celluloid Dreams
