Kids Return

Failure is an overwhelming, terrifying thing, but even the worst failures are often redeemable. Knowing this was made directly after Kitano's near-fatal accident only makes the themes of stubborn survival more powerful.

I found this difficult to endure.

Seems Takeshi Kitano can do no wrong. Character development is top notch. This story of a couple of high school kids and how their decisions have ultimately shaped their lives is wonderfully portrayed. Even the story of the third kid, whose life wasn't as detailed, was a great addition to the film.

A beautifully written portrait of passage into adulthood. The transition from the end of childhood, portrayed through cozy settings and the empty city (where the only things that matter are you, your buddy, and your comedy routines into a broomstick mic), to the almost Bressonian passages of adulthood where you can't even begin to fathom all the bigger forces at work around you, is so seamless. Of course, also beautifully filmed and scored by the great Joe Hisaishi.

Felt underdeveloped. A little less time spent on boxing would have been nice. Kick-ass soundtrack.

The ugliest film I've seen from Kitano, and I'm not talking subject matter. It's a shame since there's some real potential here (especially in a certain stand-up comedy team that's used sporadically & that bleak view of the world this director brings). The cast just doesn't bring anything out of it.

This is quite a charming film at the start and it features some interesting characters. I enjoyed following the story and seeing how students in school acted up and and how the teacher reacted. The sports element of the film interested me less but I thought it was a good, quite solid film about friendship and making the most of things ultimately. I also enjoyed the scenes depicting the two main characters carrying out comedy sketches. Yes, I'd recommend this film.

A hit in Japan but largely rejected by international distributors, Kids Return suffers from an absence of focus. It's a youth film, a boxing film and a gangster film all at once, and consequently it spreads itself thin. Kitano's non-linear plot seems like an unnecessary contrivance that doesn't add up to much, and the gangster elements were presumably crowbarred in. It is well acted, and Hisaishi's score is memorable, adding more emotional weight than this story of misbegotten youth deserves.

De Volta às Aulas estreava há 25 anos no Festival de Oldenburg. A delicadeza brutal de Kitano volta a atacar, sinto falta dos filmes em que o Beat Takeshi atua, mas o kids return funciona como uma alegoria própria do próprio retorno do diretor á função depois de uma acidente grave, o que a gente acaba perdoando a falta da presença dele na frente da câmera. Box Versátil A Arte de Takeshi Kitano.

It's a shame this little gem of a film gets lost amongst greater and more popular works of Kitano. It's somewhere between tough, violent guy-movies and sensitive, nostalgic and poetic of Kitano's film. He always picks good actors, so it's no surprise that two young leads of this film became big names in Japanese cinema. Hisaishi's score for this film is somewhere at the higher level of his distinguished body of work.

A nice story about failure.