Kikujiro · reception & legacy

How Kikujiro has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Cannes 1999 didn't quite know what to do with it — critics expecting another stone-faced Kitano crime film found a gentle road comedy instead, and it left the festival empty-handed. It's since become one of his most beloved films, a reappraisal helped enormously by Joe Hisaishi's score seeping into the wider culture.

What's debated

The perennial Kitano-fan split: is this too sentimental and saggy compared to Sonatine and Hana-bi, or is the softness precisely the point?

Its footprint

Joe Hisaishi's 'Summer' theme has completely escaped the film — it's a piano-recital staple and one of the most instantly recognizable pieces of film music in East Asia, hummed by millions who've never seen the movie it came from.

Where it stands

The gateway Kitano — the comfort-film of his catalogue and a Letterboxd favourite, the one you hand to people frightened off by his yakuza pictures.

Named by the director

Influences Takeshi Kitano has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• The Wizard of Oz (1939) — Kitano cited it as the model for the film's episodic journey structure, with strange companions met along the road.