Originally published 20th March 2015 on my Tumblr. I'm moving some old writing from there over here because it's nice to have it all in one place. It's also nice to look back once in a while.
A lonely young boy, Masao, wants to track down his absent mother during one summer, but he has no way of making the 200 mile journey to where he thinks she lives alone. A friend of his grandmother's forces her husband, Kikujiro, to accompany him, and the two head off on an eventful trip to find her, somehow involving violence, hitchhiking, gambling, theft, criminal damage, and more. The severity of these situations is never fully addressed, only implied: a bloody nose is the only evidence of a brutal beating, and their huge gambling losses are offset by the game they play to decide which riders to bet on. Both characters are living these moments together, so it makes sense to see both sides, and Kitano constantly shifts perspectives between the naive Masao and the hardened Kikujiro for the sake of a polyphonic account. Youth downplays the danger while maturity heightens the threat.
Yet as their relationship develops, the perspective becomes universal. Masao, once sad and alone, is visibly happier, even when the point of his journey dissolves in front of his eyes, and Kikijuro's brash attitude eventually softens, and his rudeness becomes playful and endearing. The unlikely duo have brought out the best in each other, simply by being together, and although the trip didn't work out as they'd hoped, they gained more than they could ever have imagined. On the last night before they return home to Tokyo, Masao looks up at the stars. Hidden in constellations are the wonderful memories of his summer, his first as part of a family, all the fun he had seared into the sky, burning bright, there forever. It’s joyous.