Plot: What’s it about?
Shinji (Masanobu Ando) and Masaru (Ken Kaneko) were the best of friends in school and even though they were delinquents and causes trouble, they always had fun together. They were always in some kind of trouble, whether playing pranks or taking cash from their classmates. A change in their lives started when a victim of their antics decided to pay them back, which amounted to him beating up Masaru. After this, they realize they’ll need to learn to box if they want to defend themselves, so that it just what they do. Both have decent talent, but Shinji proves to be much better at the sport, it drives Masaru away from boxing and his friend. As time passes, Masaru joins a local crime syndicate and Shinji continues to train as a boxer, but his mentor seems to keep him held back from his potential. Both experience highs and lows in their lives and when fate brings them back to their old school, these old friends end up together once again.
I always look forward to new discs for the films of Takeshi Kitano, so when Image isssued Kids Return, I was primed to give the disc a spin. I was let down by the lack of extras and an anamorphic transfer, but I think the film is good enough to warrant a look on this release. The story seems simple enough, but a lot of small touches and detail emerge, which ensures plenty of depth for the events and characters. This might be a different experience for Kitano fans more used to his action films, but this is certainly worth a strong look. I like this movie a lot, but the disc is a little hard to recommend. The video and audio are adequate, but the lack of supplements makes this one hard to swallow. I would have loved to have a theatrical trailer, audio commentary, or even some talent files, but this disc has no bonus materials in the least. Now if the disc had a new anamorphic transfer and active remixed audio, perhaps then the price would have been fair, but as it stands, I think this one is destined for rental status.
Takeshi Kitano is well known for his action driven pictures, but his resume is actually very diverse and skilled. This film is more of a character piece, but Kitano handles it well and provides some nice visuals also. The boxing sequences showcase Kitano’s usual flair for the kinetic, but his work doesn’t falter when the storyline takes the driver’s seat. The film is rather basic in approach, but Kitano allows the story and character to take precence, which seems to work well enough. Another more than solid effort from Kitano, who continues to add to his impressive resume. Other films on Kitano’s resume include Violent Cop, A Scene At The Sea, Hana-Bi, Sonatine, Brother, and Boiling Point. The cast is superb and includes Ken Kaneko (Secret), Masanobu Ando (Adrenaline Drive, Space Travellers), Hatsuo Yamaya, Mitsuko Oka, Leo Morimoto (Love & Pop, Wings of Honneamise), Susumu Terajima (Postman Blues, Unlucky Monkey), and Ryo Ishibashi (AmericanYakuza, The Crossing Guard).
Video: How does it look?
Kids Return is presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. This image looks passable most of the time, but has a consistent washed out look, which forces me to lower the score here. The colors look flat and dull, without real brightness or definition, which is not a good thing in the least. The contrast is also under fire, as it seems too light and exposes too much detail at times. This is by no means a bad transfer, but I’d say it is average at best, perhaps even a little lower at times.
Audio: How does it sound?
This disc uses a 2.0 surround track in the original Japanese language, but don’t expect much in terms of audio dynamite. The boxing sequences and a few other scenes cause some range in the speakers, but most of the sound effects reside within the front channels. The film’s beautiful musical score is well presented here also, but I do wish it was offered in an isolated option on this disc. The dialogue is very crisp as well, no real volume problems are present either. You can enable English subtitles here, just in case you’ll need them.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc contains no bonus materials.
