Kids Return
Dir: Takeshi Kitano
1996
*****
Takeshi captures teenage angst, growing pains and uncertainty of adulthood brilliantly here, in his usual mischievous fashion. If you liked this then you should read his book 'Boy'. It is very similar and typical of his earlier work - This is gentle Kitano and not gangster or 'Beat' Takeshi. The pace and ambiance of this film is sublime and uplifting without ever being sentimental, a real change in direction from Getting Any? (his 'Beat' suicide) and the first step of a new way of directing after his near fatal crash that changed the path of his career.