Things I Watched: This Takeshi Kitano Double-Bill of Kids Return and Kikujiro

I open this post by mentioning the lamentable point that I haven’t watched many films lately. Why? Well because I’ve been confined to a small bedroom back at my dad’s and haven’t had access to my big screen TV. I am, after all, a man who eschews small screens as the pinnacle of film-watching when a big screen a-beckons. And I'm okay with that.

But it's all about to change because I just subscribed to MUBI. If you haven’t heard of that before it’s a fantastic thing. It's a bit like Netflix, if Netflix had a good choice of foreign films rather than literally zero. MUBI’s mantra is that it features a new film every day - the catch being that there are only ever 30 films available at one time. This means that if you’re unorganised, or maybe just forgetful, then there’s a good chance you’ll miss that Swedish masterpiece you kept meaning to watch.

This week, I took the opportunity to watch two films offered as part of the service, both by Japanese filmmaker, Takeshi Kitano. The first was Kids Return, a low-budget feature about two high-school dropouts. The second was Kikujiro, a sweet story about a friendship between an ex-gangster and an impressionable young boy.

Both films share a strong essence of humanism and a careful understanding of their subjects. In Kids Returns, Kitano centers the proceedings on the failure of the Japanese school system with a story of two young, rebellious teens who nurture each other’s anti-authoritarianism and petty attitudes towards life.

In Kikujiro, Kitano prompts us towards feelings of melancholy with a powerful story about an abandoned boy who teams up with a hard-nosed ex-gangster, played by Kitano himself. A lot of attention goes into the relationship that develops between them and it leaves us with a potent message about how people change and support one another despite their differences.

To be honest, Kikujiro is easily the more accomplished of the two films but both are great in their own ways. They show us what it means to be human without falling into cliche or stereotype. They also reflect a lot of concerns about ordinary people, as well being comic in their own sardonic way. While MUBI doesn't currently offer much by way of Asian cinema, I'd definitely welcome more films like these ones.

Here's hoping!

Things I Played: Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 20 Hours in Hyrule

A controversial opinion I have about games is that there only two or three good ones released every year. I'm sure many will disagree but these days I get far less enjoyment from keeping up with the latest titles. Thankfully Breath of the Wild is one that's been worth doing so for.

It’s a game I’ve now spent about twenty hours playing since it came out just over a week ago and an experience I've really enjoyed immensely despite flip-flopping on the Zelda series as a whole. For that I’m thankful but so far I've only managed to complete one of the games' dungeons. I’ve spent the rest of my time exploring - taking in the sights and sounds of the game's absolutely humongous open-world.

If you've played a Zelda game before then it's a similar experience. There's a story which as usual has something to do with Zelda and Ganon and an ancient evil being awoken. What does differ though, is that this one is set in an open-world, punctuated by numerous sprawling vistas, hundreds of puzzle shrines, and about a billion different weapons.

It's been lovely wandering around trying to find hidden shrines and climbing all the way up to the top of imposing mountain ranges. It's helped all the while because the art direction is absolutely gorgeous. Breathtaking, if you'll pardon the really obvious pun. I really liked the chilled, serene music too.

Breath of the Wild is now gearing up to be one of my favourite games of the year. It's gotten some great reviews already. It looks like one of those rare occasions where you can and should actually believe the hype.

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Things I Watched: The World of Kanako - Stop The World, I Want To Get Off

Last night I watched The World of Kanako which is to be honest a pretty insane movie. Often you get movies that are kind of slightly insane but never overstep the mark fully. Well, this one does. It’s a hyper-stylised, bloodthirsty, marauding thriller. It revels in excess, bloodthirsty violence and would be an utterly terrible choice of movie for a first date.

The film tells the story tale of an absent father who returns home after several years to look for his estranged daughter Kanako. Much of the film is spent watching him roam the streets of Tokyo looking for leads. At one point he ends up running into with a bunch of hipster teenagers who somehow control gangland. There's corrupt police everywhere and somewhere in the middle is Kanako, seemingly the most prescient part of the puzzle.

What follows is a twisted fairy-tale that focuses on unconscious drives leading towards madness. Not only are the aesthetics stylised, but it couples an absurdly high level of violence with splashes of cartoon blood just for fun. There are literally dozens of scenes in which characters gets beaten to within an inch of his life, brutally maimed or even raped. Somehow the main character, Akikazu survives it even though his white suit doesn't.

To be honest the plot makes less sense as it goes on but I get the feeling it never intended to be make sense to begin with. It's more interested in depicting a bleak world where colourful clothing and upbeat music juxtapose deeper psychological scars. It's all best exemplified by Akikazu: the anti-hero protagonist who chases violence with glee; like he's looking for nothing less than the death and destruction his daughter wishes upon him.

It's a hard film to like but it's also hugely interesting. A gorgeous and horrifying blood-ridden neon-dive into a world ruled by the darker elements of the human psyche.

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