Metrograph

Kikujiro (played by Kitano himself), another of the director’s yakuza heroes, is entrusted here with a very different kind of mission—transporting nine-year-old Masao across Japan, to look for the boy’s mother. Allegedly inspired by The Wizard of Oz, this is a gentle, big-hearted, slapstick road movie with a relaxed pace that allows for the minute development of ingeniously worked-through gags, sure to delight audiences of all ages.