Kikujiro 菊次郎的夏天 英文影评

Kikujiro's summer --- A Coming-of-age Story

Kikujiro's summer is a Japanese movie of 1999. It is a road movie written, acted and directed by Takeshi Kitano. Unlike today’s popular movies with much dialogue and complex plots, this movie has its beautiful calmness. Separated by several chapters, this movie tells a simple story about Kikujiro’s journey of accompanying a young boy, Masao, for searching his mother during the summer vacation. Even though the result is hurtful (the boy finds out his mother has abandoned him and lives with a new family), this funny and touching odyssey presents the audients the best parts of human nature. From each chapter, one can see the growing love and the maturation of the two characters. At the end of the movie, the man totally changes his images of a gambler and becomes responsible and warm-hearted. After his gentle words of love and a series of affectionate actions, the boy is no longer lonely and dispirited. In the movie, the director Kitano uses the odds and absurd actions of a group of people to present his Japanese humor. Most members of the group are treated as the outcasts from accepted social norms. Lonely as they are, they don’t lack of humor. Their humor reflects a comfort from a shared isolation. Kikujiro's summer is not only a journey combined with sadness and happiness but also a part of childhood and a coming-of-age story.

As all of our group members are speaking Chinese as the minor language, we are holding some basic knowledge about Asian culture. We chose this Japanese movie, for one reason, we think Japanese culture is similar to Chinese culture which is not hard to understand; for another reason，once entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, this movie is quite famous at international level. From this representative Japanese movie, we can also compare Japanese culture with Chinese and French culture. However, this movie is sometimes quite confusing. Some of us are quite disappointed at the beginning. The two characters don’t have much conversation and the dull boy who always has his head bowed makes the film more boring. I agree that it is not an intricate or fascinating movie that we usually watched in cinema, but this movie has its attractiveness with its funny and subtle storytelling. We have a pair of comic bikers, a lone van traveler, an arguing truck driver, a fun juggling couple, prankish hitchhiking gags, and a rather extensive betting session at the bicycle races. There are occasions for sentimental tears. For instance, when the boy finds his mother has abandoned him, the man tried so hard to comfort the boy, and to cheer him up. Also, when the man takes a side trip to visit his own mother, he says nothing but only looking at his mother's lonely back. Even though the child appears to be a sulky non-smiling little boy most of the time, a boy will be a boy when it comes to play and open up to lightness of the heart. Besides the characters, we also have some discussion about the humor in the movie. One of French students in our group thinks that the main plot and comic effects of the movie are presented in old ways. Some of the comic scenes are bizarre and Japanese humor is difficult to understand. Indeed, Japanese sense of humor is different from French humor or Chinese humor. With the difference of culture and language, verbal humor is hard to be absorbed. People are more attracted by physical humor. In the movie, the comic effects are more presented by the oddness, childishness and absurdity of the man. Sometimes we think he is stupid, rude and makes trouble out of nothing, but sometimes we are touched and amused by his frankness, attentiveness and petty shrewdness. Moreover, some of us raised a query about the personal relationship in the movie. Most characters are strangers to each other. The boy doesn’t know the name of the man until the end of journey. In this complex society, it is dangerous for a young boy